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17.06.2013 · In an exclusive interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Syria’s Assad warns president before exporting terrorism to Europe. Assad talks about weapons to the rebels, the use of poison gas, the role of foreign powers and the Geneva Conference.

© Syrian President’s FAZ editor Rainer Hermann talks with Bashar al-Assad near Damascus

Mr. President, the Syrian army has lost control over parts of Syria. The country falls apart?

We are not in an ordinary war in which we lose control of parts of the country and control other parts. It is not a war of an army against another army. Our army instead acts against gangs. It is true that the army would only penetrate to a place where they could. They wanted it, they did. So we can every place in which we penetrate even control. The hunt for the terrorists has a high price. We have no doubt that we will turn off the terrorists on our soil completely. The problem is the destruction that is created.

They speak of terrorists. Is anyone a terrorist insurgents?

Is it legal in your country to carry weapons to kill innocent people to terrorize citizens to do harm to steal? In all countries of the world, anyone who carries weapons – except armed forces and police – to harass and kill people, defined as terrorist. And people in Syria who carry weapons to do just that whether they have an extremist or criminal motive – for the terrorist to take the name. Therefore, we distinguish between terrorists and the opposition, which is political and a political program. Killing and slaughter but terrorism.

How long will the war last?

Since the first days of me the question is asked, when the crisis comes to an end. My response was that the crisis could take a long time. Because the external factor is obvious. An internal crisis is finally resolved either, or it develops into a civil war. Neither the one nor the other happens. The reason for this is the external factor that is trying to prolong the crisis politically and militarily.

Do not carry the blame for the destruction of the country? At the beginning of the protests were purely political in nature, and only later it became an armed conflict.

Since the crisis began, even several years before its onset, we started with reforms. We have adopted several laws, lifted the emergency law, amended the Constitution and it held a referendum. Maybe the West knows, maybe not. What he does not want to see is this: Even in the first weeks there has been demonstration of police deaths, martyrs. How could it happen that police officers were killed during peaceful demonstrations? Among the protesters were armed men who shot at the police. Sometimes they were in places far from the demonstration, and there before they fired on demonstrators and police, so one assumes that have a page opened on the other the fire.

There are centrifugal forces in Syria. Individual regions of the country to be closer to its neighbors. Will shift the boundaries in the Levant?

Taking a stone arch out the keystone, and that is Syria, the entire sheet is falling apart. Each playing with the borders in the region means to redraw the map. This has a domino effect that no one could control. It may be that one of the major powers initiates this process. But no one will be able to stop this process at a certain point. There are today in the Middle East new social boundaries – religious and national, in addition to the policy limits. You make the situation complicated. No one can imagine the map as the region will look at a Neuskizzieren. It will probably be a map for innumerable wars in the Middle East and possibly elsewhere, which can be stopped by anyone.

So how is the regional order look like in the coming years?

If we exclude the scenario of a destructive divide Syria, I believe in another positive scenario. The first challenge is the restoration of security and stability, the second of the reconstruction. The biggest and most important challenge, however, is to stand against extremism. Because it has been shown that in some societies in the region take place shifts towards extremism and removal of moderation, especially in matters of religion. This raises the question of whether we succeed to position these new companies, as they had been in history. Some speak of tolerance, some say it is coexistence. Believed to someone for tolerant, it may one day suddenly no longer tolerate the others. It depends not on mere coexistence, but by joining the parts of society. Had awarded this region. The other challenge is the reform that we want. The constant question is, what is the best political system that holds our society together: the presidential system or halbpräsidiale? The parliamentary? What is the appropriate party system? We can not have religious party here – neither a Christian nor a Muslim. Religion for us is the call to personal faith, not a tool to make policy. The important thing is to accept others. This is not done, there can be no democracy, even if we have the best constitution and the best laws.

What does secularism in an environment in which to win the Islamist tendencies in strength?

The Middle East is an ideology-bound region. The Arab society is based on two pillars: Arabism and Islam. Everything else does not have this meaning. For us in Syria secularism means freedom of religions: Christians, Muslims and Jews, with all their various denominations. Secularism is necessary for the unity of society and for the feeling of citizenship. There is no alternative. Because at the same time the religions in our region are strong. This is nice and not bad. Bad, however, that fanaticism turns into terrorism. Not everyone is a fanatic terrorist, but every terrorist is a fanatic. Therefore I say: The concept of our secular state is that everyone has the right to freely exercise his religion. No one is treated differently because of his religion, creed and race.

“If the opposition is independent and nationally, we have no problem.”

How do you rate the “Arab Awakening”, which some have called “Arab Spring”?

In spring there is no bloodshed, no killing and no extremism; schools are not destroyed, children going to school is not prohibited, the woman is not forbidden to dress the way she wants it. What we are going through today, is no spring. Look at what is going on in Syria – kill, kill, behead people, even people eat parts. The cure is not to come from spring from anywhere else. It will come from us. We and many other Middle Eastern states have myriad problems that we know and objectively considered. This is the right approach to solving problems. Much more important is that the treatment comes from within. For every thing that comes from outside, brings the creature to the world that is viable. When we call for dialogue and seek solutions, they must be locally and nationally, so that we reach Syria, which we want.

You throw countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and United Kingdom from interference. Russia and Iran are also actively involved?

There is a big difference between cooperation among States and the interference in the internal affairs of a state with the intent to undermine its stability. States shall cooperate in a will to ensure its sovereignty, independence, freedom of their decisions and their stability. The relationship between Syria and Russia, Iran and other countries that are on the Syrian side, a relationship of cooperation, which is guaranteed and protected by international law.

This interference is a blatant violation of international law and the sovereignty of the country; they want to destabilize the country and spread chaos and backwardness. We see the reality, we see what is happening in Iraq and previously in Lebanon. That had to do with what happened in Syria. The widens out naturally. What will be only then, should be a military intervention? Sure the situation will be much worse then than it is today. Then we will see the domino effect of the spread of extremism, chaos and division.

Lebanon and Iraq are marked by sectarian tensions. Wear Sunnis and Shiites of both countries their conflicts to Syria?

If you have religious systems in the neighborhood, religious unrest or civil war – as was the case in Lebanon 30 years ago – it is itself affected. Syria has therefore incorporated in 1976 in Lebanon to protect themselves and also to Lebanon. Therefore, we also care about what is happening in Iraq because we are directly affected them. To be against the war in Iraq, therefore, was critical of the U.S., despite threats of that time. Religious orders are dangerous.

On the side of the rebels in Syria fighting the Nusra front. Who is that? Who supplies them with weapons and money?

The Nusra front is a branch of Al Qaeda. It represents the same ideology. You can find it in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. Funding is provided primarily by anonymous individuals and organizations with same ideology. They have huge amounts of money and weapons. The donations will go directly to the Nusra front, it is difficult to track down sources and customers of these resources. The Nusra front aimed at the establishment of an Islamic state and is mainly based on the Wahhabi creed. Ultimately leads to the concept of Al Qaeda – see the situation in Afghanistan. This applies to women in the first place. The Nusra Front wants Islamic law, the Sharia apply. This is a misleading and distorted form of Islam. On Youtube you can get an idea of ​​their barbaric actions. On Belgian TV was recently to see how an innocent man was beheaded with an ax. The members of the Nusra front coming from Syria, other Arab and Islamic states and from Europe.

What motivation have Saudi Arabia and Qatar to support the armed rebels fighting against you?

Do they support the armed men, because they believe in freedom and democracy as they claim in their media? Is there any democracy in these countries to support democracy in Syria? They have elected parliaments? They have constitutions, which have agreed to their peoples? Once the people have decided, has to look like the state order, as monarchy, presidential, Emirate or other? Things are quite clear. You should first take care of their own peoples, and then secondly, to answer your question.

How do you assess the Syria-politics of France and Britain?

I am of the opinion that France and Britain have a problem with the – have disturbing Syrian role in the region – in their opinion. You and the United States looking for lackeys and puppets that enforce their interests. We declined. We’ve always been independent and free. France and Britain are historically colonial powers. Probably they have not forgotten. You act in this region by representatives and collaborators. It may be that France and the United Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar control. We should not ignore the fact that the politics and economies of France and Britain are dependent on petrodollars. What is happening in Syria is a chance for these States to urge a non-submissive state to the brink and to search for a new president, the only “yes” says. They have not been found and they will not find in the future.

The EU has its arms embargo on Syria not extended, but not yet made a decision to supply arms to the rebels.

I can not say that the Europeans are on the Syrian side. There are countries that adopt a hostile attitude towards the Syrian government, especially France and the UK. The other states, mainly Germany, provide rational questions about arms shipments to terrorists. What would happen? First, Syria would be even more destroyed. Who would pay the price? The Syrian people. Second, the Europeans deliver weapons and know that they deliver these to terrorists. Some distinguish between “good” and “bad” fighters, as they have made a difference a couple of years between “good” and “bad” Taliban and a “good” and “bad” Al Qaeda before. Is that reasonable? If the Europeans deliver weapons of Europe’s backyard is a terrorist, and Europe will pay the price. Terrorism is chaos here, chaos leads to poverty, and poverty means that Europe is losing an important market. The second consequence would be the direct export of terrorism to Europe. Terrorists will return to fight learn and equipped with extremist ideology. For Europe, there is a cooperation with the Syrian government is no alternative, even if Europe does not like.

See yourself as part of the fight against terrorism?

That says a reason. Unfortunately, many managers in Europe are not rationally before, not realistic and not objective. You can take instead of negative feelings from the mind. Politics has to do with interests, not based on love or hate. You should ask themselves as German, where your interest is in what happens in this region. What happens here is against the interest of Europe. Because Europe has an interest in the fight against terrorism.

Quite a few see the Lebanese Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. She is fighting on the side of the Syrian army, roughly in Quseir. There is evidence that Iranian Revolutionary Guards train Syrian units. Need these allies?

Media try to convey the image that the Hezbollah fighting, because the Syrian army was weak. In fact, we win great victories for a few months in different regions, which are perhaps more important than Quseir. But it is not reported. No one else is fighting in such areas as the Syrian army. There are also local vigilante groups who defend the army together with their own areas. That is one reason for our success. Quseir was particularly important because of the statements of western charge that we are dealing in Quseir a strategic city. That’s an exaggeration. In the city there were many armed men and weapons arsenals.

What then was the role of Hizbullah?

The terrorists had begun to bombard the Hizbullah related villages along the border. It was inevitable that Hizbullah intervene with the Syrian army to end the chaos. The Syrian army is a great army, and to carry out its task with local citizens in all areas. We really needed help, we would have brought these Hizbullah forces in the Damascus Countryside. You know that fighting on the outskirts of Damascus held. Damascus is much more important than Quseir, Quseir also Aleppo is more important than all big cities are there. This propaganda aimed twofold: First, to show that Hezbollah does the work, and secondly, the Western and international opinion against Hezbollah should be applied.

How big are the units of Hezbollah in Syria?

There are no associations. There are individual fighters along the border, about where the terrorists were to be found at Quseir. They have supported the Syrian army in the purges along the Lebanese border. The forces Hezbollah are stationed towards Israel and can not leave the south of Lebanon. Although Hezbollah had sent fighters to Syria, how many can it be? Some hundreds? We speak of a battle with a hundred thousand soldiers of the Syrian army. Some can take hundreds at a place influence, but do not change the balance of power in Syria.

The governments of France and Britain say they would be available evidences that the Syrian army had used chemical weapons. Now, says the American government. Why do you allow the inspectors of the UN only access to Aleppo?

Let’s start with what the White House has announced, with 150 deaths in a period of one year. Militarily, conventional weapons can kill a lot more than that number in a year in one day. Weapons, which are used for mass destruction, are capable of hundreds of thousands to kill at once. Therefore they are used. It is therefore illogical to use chemical weapons to kill a number of people that can be achieved by use of conventional weapons. France and the UK and some U.S. and European leaders have said, we would these weapons used in some Syrian areas. We have not said that we possess chemical weapons, nor that we do not possess. Chemical weapons are weapons of mass destruction. Had Paris, London and Washington only one evidence for their claims, they would have submitted this to the world. Where is the chain of evidence, which should lead to the conclusion that “Syria used chemical weapons” have? As proof that the terrorists are those who use chemical weapons, we have asked the UN to send a commission to the place where the terrorists have used chemical weapons – and that was in Aleppo. French and British have blocked this request. If the commission came, it would have found that terrorists have used chemical weapons. Everything that is said about the use of chemical weapons, is a continuation of the lies about Syria. It is an attempt to justify more military interference.

Why then sit inspectors from the UN?

It will turn out that France and Britain go by the truth. They wanted the Commission gets access to all the same places and doing work that once done the weapons inspectors in Iraq. They have interfered in matters that do not fall under their authority. We are a state, we have our army, we have our secrets. We will not allow anyone to gain insight into it, not the UN, not France, not Britain, not others.

Why the Syrian army bombarded residential areas?

We hunt the terrorists, wherever they go. They often go into residential areas. Take the example of Quseir. Western media reported 50,000 civilians in Quseir. The number of inhabitants was originally much smaller. As the terrorists seized the town, the inhabitants left him. We found almost no civilians when we moved in Quseir. Come the terrorists, the civilians leave any place, and the fights break out. This is evidenced by the fact that most of the victims are members of the military. The civilians who were killed are victims of terrorists who executions enforced and used civilians as human shields. A large number of civilian victims killed by suicide attacks and car bombs. The remaining deaths are either Syrian or foreign terrorists.

After your army conquered the city of Quseir: Why not use that to reach out to national reconciliation of the opposition?

From the first day we had our hand out to anyone who wants a dialogue. We have not changed this attitude. We held a national dialogue conference at the beginning of the crisis, in parallel, we were fighting the terrorists. In opposition to the notion we should not all be lumped, we should team up with politicians not terrorists. You have an opposition in Germany, but it carries no weapons. We speak of opposition, we mean politicians. We are always ready to enter into a dialogue with these politicians. This has nothing to do with Quseir. I do not think that national reconciliation is a more accurate term. It is not with us as a civil war in Lebanon. It is not a question as between whites and blacks in South Africa. Here is a dialogue that aims to get out of the crisis and move the terrorists to lay down their arms. The Geneva conference followed the above policy objectives. So, the political process has not stopped. However, there are obstacles from the outside – Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France and the UK. They do not want dialogue. Rather, they want the continuation of the riots, and that causes a delay in the dialogue and political solution.

With whom you are willing to sit down at a table?

Has with any opposition, which carries no weapons, do not support terrorism, and a political program. The opposition has to prove itself in elections, which are local elections and – most important – parliamentary elections. We are dealing with forces that call themselves opposition. Here we ask two questions: What is their popular base? What is your political program? Accordingly we act.

Why you have not been negotiated with the opposition in Syria?

We have invited in the first dialogue conference of 2011 anyone who considers himself a dissident. Part of the opposition came, others suggested the invitation on the grounds that, we are not come to meet them. What does that mean? What do we offer them? Ministerial positions in the Cabinet? Yes they have no seat in Parliament. How can we know who deserves to be in the government? This requires criteria and standards. This has nothing to do with moods. The only opposition, which is now in the government, the opposition, which has won seats in parliament. To put it bluntly: The state is not the property of the President, to distribute gifts of ministries. It is a national process, and constitutional government are determined by the people. Our doors are open.

Is there room for a political solution?

If the opposition is independent and nationally, we have no problem. The opposition abroad presents its reports to Western foreign ministries and their intelligence. Who financed them, gives them before their decisions. For us, opposition means that it represents a part of the population and not a foreign state. To be a genuine opposition, you have to Syrian soil with his people as well as its problems and needs of life. Only then will this opposition can be part of a political process.

You said that you do not negotiate with slaves, but only with their masters. What does this mean?

I have made this comparison in order to clarify what really happened. The television was to see how the French Ambassador has spoken in Syria with the Syrian opposition, as he gave her commands and she even insulted. In another video oppositionists testified as the American ambassador to Syria has insulted them. Practically, we will conduct negotiations with the United States, France and Great Britain as well as their tools, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The forces that call themselves the opposition abroad, are mere employees and in this sense slaves.

What do you expect from the conference on Syria, to be held this summer in Geneva?

We hope that the Geneva Conference, an important station is to advance dialogue in Syria. Especially since we announced the beginning of a vision for a political solution. We should not ignore the fact that there are states that are not interested in a success in Geneva. These are the same states that support terrorism in Syria. Succeed in the conference – and that is what we hope – to ban weapons being smuggled to Syria and infiltrate terrorists – there are terrorists from 29 countries – then this is an approach to success. Not the Geschähe and sat terrorism continues: What then would be the value of a political solution? A political solution is based on stopping the smuggling of terrorists and weapons into Syria. We hope that the Geneva Conference begins with this point. If it were possible for her to decide, I consider the conference a success. Without this result, the conference would not succeed.

What would be the consequence of a failure of the conference?

The Syrian crisis is not over, it will spread to other countries, and the situation will deteriorate. The mind commands it true that all interest in the success. But the opposition abroad would lose their money, the conference should be successful. If you have neither money nor a base in the population, it has nothing.

Can emerge from Geneva with people from different political camps, a transitional government?

We took on an expanded government, the different sides represents and prepares the parliamentary elections. Who has success in these elections, will take part in the government, who does not, it has no place.

It is, after so much bloodshed, a political new beginning is possible only with new leaders. Are you willing to give up your office as President?

The Constitution prescribes the duties of the President. His legislative session ends in 2014. The country is in crisis, the functions of the President are larger and not smaller. Of course you can the country during a crisis not let you down. Again and again I compare the situation with a ship caught in a storm. Just imagine, the captain leaves the ship and flees with a rescue boat. Give under these circumstances, meant to commit a major national betrayal. Another thing is, if the people decide that someone should lose his office. How can you know if the people want that you give up the office? Either through elections or a referendum. The referendum on the new constitution, 58 percent of voters participated. 89.4 percent voted for the new constitution, which is a good indicator. The president is not the problem. Other states want the president assigns in favor of certain of these countries lackeys.

In 2014, a presidential election will be held. How should they proceed?

Under the new Constitution, there will be more than one candidate, and that will be a new experience. It is difficult to know exactly how it will be until we have tested it.

Syria will look like in five years?

I repeat: extremism is the biggest challenge. If we can tackle this, we can follow a correct democratic path. The democracy that we seek in Syria is not an end but a means for stability and development. This question is not about laws and constitutions. The democratic process is a cultural and social process in the first place.

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h/t Wayne Madsen Report dot com

The media is quoting a number of intelligence “insiders” who are questioning NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s involvement in National Security Agency (NSA) signals intelligence and meta-data mining programs like PRISM and CIA human intelligence (HUMINT) operations.

However, the U.S. intelligence “insiders” may be trying their best to cover up the operations of a little-known hybrid NSA-CIA organizations known as the Special Collection Service (SCS), known internally at NSA as “F6,” and which is headquartered in Beltsville, Maryland in what appears to be a normal office building with a sign bearing the letters “CSSG” at its front driveway off of Springfield Road. Adjacent to the CSSG building is the State Department’s Beltsville Communications Annex, known internally at the State Department as SA-26 and part of the Diplomatic Telecommunications Service, which also handles encrypted communications to CIA stations around the world.

CSSG is listed in area phone directories as Communications Systems  Support Group, 11600 Springfield Road, Laurel, Maryland, 20708-3528, with a phone number of (301) 210-1776.
“1776,” in this case, is the farthest thing from the ideals of founders like Thomas Jefferson, who developed his own encryption code, still known as the “Jefferson cipher,” in order to encode messages sent between the covert revolutionary Committees of Correspondence.

The SCS uses the State Department’s secure communications satellite channels to communicate with SCS covert electronic eavesdropping facilities embedded in U.S. diplomatic embassies and missions abroad. One of the SCS units is located at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Snowden said he was responsible for maintaining network security at the mission.

According to the list of key foreign service officers at U.S. diplomatic posts, dated 2008, mission is located at 11 Rte de Pregny, 1292 Chambesy in Geneva. While Snowden worked at the mission, the ambassador was Warren Tichenor and the deputy chief of mission was Mark Storella. Other diplomats assigned to the mission when Snowden was assigned to it included:David Gilmour, Anne Coughlin (the Regional Security Officer),Mark G. Bandik (USAID),  David Reimer, Lisa Myers,Louis Nelli, Nance Kyloh, Ritchie Miller, Kathy J. Beck (Internal Revenue Service), Don Greer, Doug Wells, Ann Chick, Jeffrey D. Kovar (FBI Legal Attaché), and Michael Klecheski (Political Officer).

Evidence is mounting that Snowden was working for the SCS in Geneva. The Swiss Foreign ministry has confirmed that Snowden was declared by the U.S. State Department as an “attaché” assigned to the mission from March 2007 to February 2009. Snowden’s name would not necessarily appear on the State Department’s diplomatic list because it only specifies “key” foreign service officers and not normally Diplomatic Telecommunications Service personnel, of which Snowden was likely one. In 2009, Snowden left the CIA to work for Dell Computers and thereafter went to work for Booz Allen Hamilton as a contractor for the NSA at “NSA Hawaii,” the Regional security Operations Center located at Kunia on Oahu and which is responsible for eavesdropping on the Asia-Pacific region.

The Special Collection Service headquarters driveway.

State Department’s Beltsville Annex.

Snowden told The Guardian that he witnessed CIA agents routinely getting a Swiss banker drunk and then encouraging him to drive home. After the banker was arrested for drunk driving, the CIA offered to bail him out of trouble if he became a CIA source.

Snowden’s involvement with the SCS would have also given him access to information on CIA stations, CIA official cover agents assigned to U.S. diplomatic posts like Geneva, and surveillance priorities for NSA, such as those depicted on a Top Secret map contained in a slide on NSA’s BOUNDLESSINFORMANT global electronic surveillance program.

SCS permits NSA to conduct surveillance on targets that are normally denied due to high levels of physical security and encryption. Black bag CIA and NSA teams penetrate physical security and place listening devices in secure areas and embed Trojan horse programs in computer systems and networks that allow NSA to bypass encryption controls.

The SCS is also used to recruit foreign nationals who would be helpful in providing access to government and commercial networks and databases. Chief targets for such recruitment are
database managers, systems administrators, and computer security technicians, in other words, people like Snowden. Even Swiss bankers with access to secret accounts would be targeted by the SCS to provide system passwords and remote access techniques to banking networks. The Swiss government has sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government demanding an explanation of Snowden’s allegations about the recruitment of the Swiss banker. Swiss counter-intelligence is rated among the best in the world.

Communications Security establishment Canada (CSEC) officer Mike Frost was the first to reveal details about SCS in his 1994 book Spyworld: Inside the Canadian and American Intelligence Establishments. Frost was trained to conduct covert communications surveillance in foreign capitals at SCS, which, before moving to the Beltsville facility, was located in a strip shopping center in College Park, Maryland behind a false retail operation.  CSEC’s operation was code named PILGRIM and it used an NSA system code named ORATORY to conduct surveillance from Canadian embassies in countries around the world.

NSA, like CSEC, Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Australia’s Defense Signals Directorate (DSD), and New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Board (GCSB)– known as the UK-USA or “Five Eyes” countries — conduct covert electronic surveillance from the nation’s embassies and consulates abroad. The operations are supported by SCS. Not only does the NSA and CIA maintain special collections units at the U.S. mission in Geneva but most U.S. diplomatic missions, including the ill-fated diplomatic mission in Benghazi, housed SCS surveillance units.

Snowden, in his televised interview with The Guardian, referred to NSA’s “partners,” which are the Five Eyes English-speaking nations. He also spoke of “third parties,” which are non-English speaking nations that are part of the signals intelligence “club,” countries like Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Belgium. NSA also maintain agreements with Third Parties, which, in what could be an unfortunate for Snowden, the People’s Republic of China. Two NSA listening stations in Xinjiang in western China, located at Qitai and Korla, were code named SAUGUS and SAUCEPAN, respectively. In addition, GCHQ maintains an SCS surveillance station at its Hong Kong consulate, which is nicknamed “the Alamo.”

The NSA’s eavesdropping system ran out of the U.S. embassy in Moscow was once code named BROADSIDE. CSEC PILGRIM surveillance units, operated under Canadian embassy and high commission diplomatic cover and supported by SCS, were present in Caracas (ARTICHOKE), Beijing (BADGER), Mexico City (CORNFLOWER), New Delhi (DAISY), Kingston, Jamaica (EGRET), Rabat  (IRIS), Abidjan (JASMINE), Bucharest (HOLLYHOCK), and Moscow (SPHINX). Other PILGRIM units operated in Canadian embassies in Rome; San Jose, Costa Rica; Tokyo; and Warsaw.

SCS maintained a surveillance unit at the Canadian High Commiission in New Delhi.

Among the most storied SCS operations was the planting in 2001 of 27 bugging devices on the Boeing-767 delivered to China for use by Chinese President Jiang Zemin as his official plane. Chinese counter-intelligence discovered the bugs before they were activated. SCS also reportedly set up a surveillance unit a mile from Osama Bin Laden’s alleged compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. SCS units were also deployed to Chechnya during the first Russo-Chechen war to assist Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev in evading Russian signals intelligence direction finding operations targeting his personal satellite phone. In 1996, Dudayev ran out of luck after visiting President Bill Clinton helped embattled President Boris Yeltsin’s re-election chances by providing the Russian President with Dudayev’s NSA-triangulated fix. Dudayev was killed, while talking on his phone, by a Russian air-to ground missile.

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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist. He has written for several renowned papers and blogs. Madsen is a regular contributor on Russia Today. He has been a frequent political and national security commentator on Fox News and has also appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and MS-NBC. Madsen has taken on Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity on their television shows. He has been invited to testifty as a witness before the US House of Representatives, the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and an terrorism investigation panel of the French government. As a U.S. Naval Officer, he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He subsequently worked for the National Security Agency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation. Madsen is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Association for Intelligence Officers …

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SPECIAL REPORT: Renewing the Cold War – Part 1 – West stoking internal plots in China

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The Story of Obama: All in The Company – Part I

The Story of Obama: All in The Company – Part II

The Story of Obama: All in The Company – Part III

The Story of Obama: All in The Company – Part IV

Barack Obama Sr’s Entire Immigration File

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March 28-29, 2011 – SPECIAL EXCLUSIVE REPORT. Obama’s mother began her Indonesian field work at height of complaints about CIA involvement with foreign “research”

College of Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa -Ann Dunham: A Personal Reflection

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U.S. President Barack Obama (L) holds a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on June 17, 2013. (AFP)

U.S. President Barack Obama (L) holds a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on June 17, 2013. (AFP)

Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region.

For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.

The Independent on Sunday has learned that a military decision has been taken in Iran – even before last week’s presidential election – to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost almost 100,000 lives in just over two years. Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel.

In years to come, historians will ask how America – after its defeat in Iraq and its humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan scheduled for 2014 – could have so blithely aligned itself with one side in a titanic Islamic struggle stretching back to the seventh century death of the Prophet Mohamed. The profound effects of this great schism, between Sunnis who believe that the father of Mohamed’s wife was the new caliph of the Muslim world and Shias who regard his son in law Ali as his rightful successor – a seventh century battle swamped in blood around the present-day Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kerbala – continue across the region to this day. A 17th century Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott, compared this Muslim conflict to that between “Papists and Protestants”.

Read the rest at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-to-send-4000-troops-to-aid-president-assad-forces-in-syria-8660358.html

h/t Activist Post dot com

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russian journalists, who were in Syria, said there is no doubt that the foreign-backed opposition fighters and terrorists have used chemical weapons in attacks in the vicinity of the Syrian city of Aleppo on March 19.

These Russian journalists handed over some videos to the United Nation Secretariat. The videos showed the foreign-backed fighters of the opposition forces had used chemical weapons in attacks in the area of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The report about these videos, which were handed over to the United Nation Secretariat by these Russian journalists were already confirmed by the spokesman for Deputy UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq, Syria News reported.

Farhan Haq said the videos showed the “opposition fighters” used chemical weapons in their attacks on March 19. The information will be given to Oke Selstemu, who is the head of the UN experts investigating the possible use of chemical weapons/weapons of mass destruction in Syria.

The Syrian government in the capital Damascus informed the UN Secretariat about the use of chemical weapons in attacks by the foreign-backed anti-government fighters already in March, and also the journalist Anastasia Popova (RTR) has confirmed already that toxic substances were used by the “opposition forces” in some attacks.

Early in May, a report said that the innocent people killed in the Khan al-Assal area of rural Aleppo in Northwestern Syria were the victims of the chemical weapons supplied to the terrorists by a Saddam-era General working under head of the now outlawed Ba’ath party Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.

“The chemical weapons used in the attack on Khan al-Assal area had been prepared by former Iraqi Military Industries Brigadier General Adnan al-Dulaimi and supplied to Ba’ath-affiliated terrorists of the al-Nusra Front in Aleppo through Turkey’s cooperation and via the Turkish town of Antakya in Hatay Province,” an informed source, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of his life, told FNA.

The source who has been an aide to Izzat Ibrahim – the most senior member of Saddam Hussein’s inner circle who is still on the run and heads the outlawed Ba’ath party after the apprehension and execution of Iraq’s former Dictator Saddam Hussein – defected from the group a few months ago, but holds substantiating documents on Izzat Ibrahim’s plans.

Gen. Adnan al-Dulaimi was a key man in Saddam’s chemical weapons production projects. After the fall of the dictator and when the Ba’ath party was divided into the two branches of Yunes al-Ahmad and Izzat Ibrahim, he joined the latter group and was deployed in Northwestern Iraq, which is a bastion of Ba’ath terrorists, to produce chemical substances.

“The 80mm mortar shells which landed in Khan al-Assal and killed dozens of people were armed with the latest product of Dulaimi’s hidden laboratories sent to the al-Nusra Front members for testing,” the source added.

“Also at his order, several former Iraqi military industries engineers trained the Syrian terrorists on how to use these chemical weapons,” the source said, adding that all plans in this connection were prepared by Adnan al-Dulaimi and staged after the approval of Izzat Ibrahim.

The chemical mortar shells, which the source said were fired at Khan al-Assal from the al-Nusra Front-ruled Kafr Dael in Northwestern Aleppo, contained a chemical substance very familiar to the Iraqi Ba’ath party leaders, Sarin nerve gas. Adnan Dulaimi and his Ba’athist colleagues in Iraq’s military industries mass-produced the same lethal gas and used it in vast areas against the Iranian troops in the 1980-1988 war and eventually killed thousands of people in the Kurdish town of Halabcheh with the same chemical agent.

UN human rights investigators also announced that they have testimony indicating Syrian rebels have used Sarin gas. Interviews with victims and doctors have provided “strong, concrete suspicions” that rebels used the deadly nerve agent, according to a lead investigator, who also stressed that there’s no evidence yet that the Syrian military used Sarin.

“Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of Sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” member of the UN independent commission of inquiry on Syria Carla Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

“This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities,” she added, speaking in Italian.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, Del Ponte said.

The chemical attack on Khan al-Assal came after a video footage posted on the internet late in January showed that the armed militants in Syria possessed canisters containing chemical substances.

The foreign-sponsored militants had earlier released footage in which rabbits were killed by inhaling poisonous gas.

Fars News Agency – http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9202247030

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
June 14, 2013

Ben Rhodes, the White House national security advisor behind the claim that President Bashar Al-Assad used chemical weapons in Syria, is a fiction writer with zero educational background in government, diplomacy or national security who also played a key role in covering up the truth behind the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

Ben Rhodes (left). Image: Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday, Rhodes announced that the White House had “high confidence” that the Syrian Army had used chemical weapons, providing no evidence, and that the Obama administration would now take steps to arm FSA rebels, who as has been widely documented are being led by Al-Qaeda terrorists who killed U.S. troops in Iraq. The Wall Street Journal also reports that a no fly zone is being prepared that would embroil the United States in yet another war.

35-year-old Rhodes has been a speechwriter for Obama since 2007 and now enjoys the role of deputy national security adviser for strategic communication. He created the infamous term “kinetic military action” to describe the bombardment of Libya which allowed Obama to skirt around the constitutional question of having to declare war.

Rhodes’ expertise revolves around manufacturing narratives. “He earned a master’s degree in fiction-writing from New York University just a few years ago,” writes Ed Lansky. “He did not have a degree in government, diplomacy, national security; nor has he served in the CIA, or the military. He was toiling away not that long ago on a novel called ‘The Oasis of Love” about a mega church in Houston, a dog track, and a failed romance.”

As Stephen Hayes documents in a lengthy Weekly Standard piece, Rhodes was instrumental in altering CIA talking points to delete references to Islamic terrorists being involved in the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, setting the foundation for the Obama administration’s cover-up of the incident by claiming the siege was a demonstration against an anti-Muslim film. This was an attempt to hide the fact that the White House had supported Al-Qaeda terrorists in the overthrow of Gaddafi, just as they are now doing in Syria.

Rhodes can also count on the support of the US corporate media in selling fairytales about chemical weapons, since his brother David is the president of CBS News.

The central involvement of a fiction writer in selling yet another war based on dubious claims about the use of weapons of mass destruction is perfectly appropriate for an administration that is clearly beating the war drums in order to distract from domestic scandals.

Read the rest of this outstanding article by clicking – http://www.infowars.com/man-behind-syrian-chemical-weapons-claim-is-fiction-writer-who-covered-up-benghazi/