Russia warns war is coming

[mindyrbusiness]

WND Exclusive-Source reveals government given 4-6 weeks to crush opposition
http://www.wnd.com/files/2012/03/120304 ... 40x170.jpg

JERUSALEM – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is preparing a major offensive in the coming days against the opposition targeting his regime, an informed Syrian government source confirmed.

The source told WND yesterday Assad was warned by Russia that if the coming counterinsurgency targeting the opposition is not successful in the next 4-6 weeks, Syria should be prepared for a war.

The source did not say whether the possibility of war referred to a Russian expectation of international intervention in Syria.

The information comes after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday accused Russia of sending helicopter gunships to Syria for use in crackdowns on rebel positions across Syria.

“We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria,” said Clinton. “They have, from time to time, said that we shouldn’t worry – everything they are shipping is unrelated to their [the Syrian government's] actions internally. That’s patently untrue.”

Continued Clinton: “And we are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically.”

Also yesterday U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland echoed concerns by UN envoy Kofi Annan that a so-called massacre is being organized against the Syrian opposition.

“The United States joins joint special envoy Kofi Annan in expressing deep alarm at reports from inside Syria that the regime may be organizing another massacre,” Nuland said. “People will be held accountable.”

A previous attack against civilians in the Syrian neighbourhood of Houla saw 108 people, including 49 children, reportedly executed at close range on May 25. The international community quickly blamed Assad’s forces for the massacre.

This past weekend, Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter “Allgemeine Zeitung,” quoted sources claiming the Houla massacre was actually committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants.

Immediately following the massacre, WND reported Syria presented the United Nations and the U.S. with information that claimed it was a group affiliated with al-Qaida, armed by Turkey, that slaughtered the civilians in their homes in Houla, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

The international community has widely condemned Syria, pinning the blame for the Houla massacre on forces acting under the direction of Assad’s regime.

Assad’s regime several times has claimed al-Qaida was behind a series of attacks blamed on Syrian forces.

Last month, Syria said it arrested 26 al-Qaida “foreign terrorists,” including one Jordanian.

Two weeks ago Assad used a rare national address to blame “terrorists” and foreign elements for the Houla massacre.

The massacre furthered galvanized world opinion against Assad and has led to stepped-up calls by the opposition for the use of military force to oust the Syrian regime.

The U.S., Italy and Spain announced last week they are expelling Syrian ambassadors after similar moves by France, Germany, Britain, Australia and Canada.

In retaliation, Syria said it is expelling diplomats from Turkey and 10 Western countries, including the U.S. and the U.K.

Much of the Western news media blamed Assad’s troops for the Houla massacre.

But underscoring the gap of information on the ground, many news media reports at first claimed the civilian deaths in Houla were caused by mortars and shelling by Assad’s forces.

Two days later, much of the news media changed its tune, parroting a U.N. report that says most of the 108 victims of the Houla massacre were shot at close range, some of them women, children and entire families gunned down in their homes.

Survivors and witnesses cited by the U.N. blamed the house-to-house killings on pro-government thugs known as shabiha.

Largely unreported is Syria’s claim that an armed terrorism element is behind the massacre.

Middle East security officials told WND Syria has sent information to the U.S., U.N. and other international bodies indicating the house-to-house slaughter was carried out by a group affiliated with al-Qaida that came from North Africa.

According to Syria, the jihad organization entered Syria via Turkey, where the militants were first armed. Syria did not blame Turkey directly for the massacre, the security officials said. The Syrian report stated Turkey likely believes the al-Qaida elements were going to fight Assad’s regime.

For months now, Turkey has been hosting the Syrian opposition and agitating for international military intervention against Damascus.

Two weeks ago one Egyptian security official told WND there is a growing collaboration between the Syrian opposition and al-Qaida as well as evidence the opposition is sending weapons to jihadists in Iraq.

An Egyptian military attaché detailed the alleged collaboration between al-Qaida and the U.S.-aided opposition in Syria that operates under the banner of the National Free Army.

The purported cooperation extends to recent suicide attacks and bombings in Damascus and in the embattled Syrian city of Homs.

The military official told WND that Egypt has reports of collaboration between the Syrian opposition and three al-Qaida arms:

Jund al-Sham, which is made up of al-Qaida militants who are Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese;
Jund al-Islam, which in recent years merged with Ansar al-Islam, an extremist group of Sunni Iraqis operating under the al-Qaida banner;
Jund Ansar al-Allah, an al-Qaida group based in Gaza linked to Palestinian camps in Lebanon and Syria.

The Arab League, which has condemned Syria, previously privately recognized an armed terrorist element agitating against Assad’s regime.

A leaked Arab League dispatch, posted in February by the Anonymous group, said Arab League monitors on the ground in Syria several times witnessed an “armed entity” provoking Syrian forces and placing civilian lives in danger.

That section of the classified report read: “The Mission determined that there is an armed entity that is not mentioned in the protocol. … In some zones, this armed entity reacted by attacking Syrian security forces and citizens, causing the Government to respond with further violence. In the end, innocent citizens pay the price for those actions with life and limb.”

[Julian]

TYhe west has ZERO business meddling in Syrian affairs. ... or those of any other nation that is not a threat to us.

[mindyrbusiness]

Let the Headlines Speak
Settlements Trump Syria and Iran As Top Mideast Issue, Says EU
Daily News Arutz Sheva - Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Categories: Today's Headlines;Anti-Israel

Settlements Trump Syria as Mideast Issue, Says EU The expansion of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria is the most “urgent” problem in the Mideast, according to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

She said in a debate on the Middle East at the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg this week that ending the Palestinian Authority-Israeli disagreement regarding sovereignty over Judea and Samaria remains a “key priority and fundamental to EU interest.”

Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which Tehran denies exists, and Syria’ documented massacre of men, women and children opposing the Assad regime, took the back seat to the regions' problems that must be settled immediately.

Ashton has been an active opponent of Israeli sovereignty over any parts of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria that were restored to the country in the Six-Day War in 1967.

She did condemn recent missile attacks on Israel from Gaza, but she otherwise hammered on what she called “illegal settlement expansion.”

As for the future of Jerusalem, she stated that the capital "must be shared between the two nations as part of any two state agreement.”

After establishing the “settlements” as the issue of priority, she described the “sickening” violence of Syrian regime. Ashton defended Kofi Annan’s six-point plan to end the violence in Syria despite Syrian President Bashar Assad’s refusal to honor several ceasefire agreements and despite the failure of United Nations observers to travel freely throughout the country to survey damage and Syrian army offensives.

She argued that the diplomatic approach “remains the best option.”
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Turkey Fears Syrian Conflict Spilling Over Border
More than 29,500 Syrian refugees have fled through that border to the safety of Turkey in the past year, officials in Ankara have said. At least two thousand of those arrived within the past 48 hours, a major upswing in the number of people fleeing the violence at one time, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
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On brink of Bosnia-style war: Britain could send in troops to Syria says William Hague
The Foreign Secretary said that time for a diplomatic solution is rapidly running out and the country is “on the edge” of a Bosnia-style sectarian conflict. Britain will “greatly increase” support for the Syrian opposition if attempts to end President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression fail, Mr Hague said.
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Russia prepares army for Syrian deployment
...the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper reported that the Russian army is apparently being prepared for a mission in Syria. Citing anonymous sources in the military leadership, the newspaper said that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the general staff to work out a plan for military operations outside Russia, including in Syria.
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U.S. says Russian attack helicopters sent to Syria
The U.S. accused Russia of escalating the Syrian conflict by sending attack helicopters to President Bashar Assad's regime, and U.N. observers were attacked Tuesday with stones, metal rods and gunfire that blocked them from a besieged rebel-held town where civilians were feared trapped by government shelling.
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Two stories concerning the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood as Christians in Syria fear the fall of the Assad Regime will mean the rise of the Brotherhood
Secret U.S. Poll Projects 70 Pc Lead for Muslim Presidential Candidate Morsi
Daily News debkafile

The Obama administration is girding up for the shock of Egypt becoming the first Arab country, and the most populous, to be ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood. The last of three secret polls US intelligence conducted in Egypt assigned the MB contender Muhammad Morsi a 70 percent win of the presidential election runoff, Saturday-Sunday, June 16-17, against former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq’s 30 percent, according to debkafile’s exclusive sources.
Although such polls often miss the mark, the US, Israel and the Middle East appear to be facing this fast-approaching prospect.
Egypt’s transitional government the Supreme Military Council (SCAF) has publicly pledged to transfer power to civilian control on July 1 whomsoever wins the election. There are signs of preparations for this game-changer in Washington, though not in Jerusalem – unless they are taking place in secret – although Israel’s strategic and regional situation faces radical change.
At the same time, as high-placed American sources monitoring events in Egypt point out, the incoming president’s powers are still undefined and the SCAF may hold off transferring authority until they are.
Defining the extent of presidential authority is one of the tasks up to the 100-member Egyptian Constitutional Assembly, which only began work Wednesday, June 13. It is impossible to predict the content of its final document, although the body has a Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi Nour majority.
Furthermore, a judicial body, Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, is due to hand down critical rulings Thursday, June 14, just two days before the presidential election. They promise major repercussions for voting patterns and the status of the two contenders and their parties.
One SCC recommendation is to abolish as unconstitutional the law passed by the Islamist-dominated parliament in April barring senior Mubarak-era officials (such as Ahmed Shafiq) from running for president.
The SCC may also throw out the electoral laws under which The Brotherhood and the Salafist party gained 75 percent of seats in parliament, order it its dissollution and call a new general election.
If confirmed, these rulings could produce a Brotherhood president without constitutional powers or parliamentary backing. In these circumstances, Muhammad Morsi would be too weak to govern, or even become a figurehead, and the SCAF would stay in power.
All this is of course speculative, debkafile's sources report. No one can tell for sure how Egypt’s first venture into full democracy will turn out.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s violent campaign tactics have meanwhile had some unforeseen consequences and created unexpected bedfellows.
Gangs of Islamist thugs have gone about burning Shafiq’s campaign branches, breaking up his public rallies and attacking the homes of his supporters and families. They turn up with loudspeaker cars on the fringes of pro-Shafiq rallies and shout slogans saying he should be hanged after the ousted ruler Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for lesser crimes.
Those tactics have absurdly sent some of the democratic and liberal forces which staged the Tahir Square revolution for toppling Mubarak rallying behind his last prime minister and adherent, as the lesser evil.
However, those tactics have a more sinister side.
debkafile’s intelligence sources report that local gangs of Islamist thugs are linking up into a nationwide organization, for which the Brotherhood is setting up regional headquarters. In Cairo this week, a central headquarters began coordinating their activities with a fleet of vehicles ferrying squads between districts for creating mayhem.

The Brotherhood’s gangs are acquiring a hierarchical structure resembling the embryonic paramilitary militias which surfaced in the early years of Iran’s Shiite revolution in the late 1970s and early 1980s and evolved into Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
This manifestation will not disappear after elections are over but will be there to stay as part of Egypt’s political and street landscape, whoever is elected president. That is further cause for trepidation in the US and Israel.

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Egypt Islamist vows global caliphate in Jerusalem
By OREN KESSLER -Jerusalem Post
05/08/2012 01:27
http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowI ... ?ID=193316
http://youtu.be/QI3wG3loKlA

“The capital of the United States of the Arabs will be Jerusalem," preacher tells thousands at Brotherhood rally.

Egypt’s Islamists aim to install a global Islamic caliphate with its capital in Jerusalem, a radical Muslim preacher told thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in a clip released Monday.

“We can see how the dream of the Islamic caliphate is being realized, God willing, by Dr. Mohamed Mursi,” Safwat Higazi told thousands of Brotherhood supporters at a Cairo soccer stadium as Mursi – the movement’s presidential candidate – and other Brotherhood officials nodded in agreement.
Members of the crowd carried banners emblazoned with slogans related to next week’s “Nakba Day,” when Palestinians and other Arabs mourn Israel’s creation in 1948.

“Tomorrow, Mursi will liberate Gaza,” an unidentified man cheers in the video before leading the crowd in chants of “Allah Akbar.”

“Banish the sleep from the eyes of all Jews,” the man repeats, accompanied by drumming. “Come on, you lovers of martyrdom, you are all Hamas… Forget about the whole world, forget about conferences. Brandish your weapons, say your prayers and pray to the Lord.”

Returning to the stage, Mursi vowed to pray in Jerusalem. “Yes, Jerusalem is our goal. We shall pray in Jerusalem, or die as martyrs on its threshold.”

Raymond Stock, an American translator and academic who spent two decades in Egypt, said the clip should come as a surprise to no one.

“This is what the Muslim Brotherhood really stands for: the extermination of Israel – and Jews everywhere – as well as the spread and control of radical Islam over the world,” he told The Jerusalem Post.

“How anyone can fail to see this boggles the mind – yet its denial is virtual dogma in the global mainstream media, US government and Western academia today,” said Stock, who has translated a number of books by the Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz.

The Brotherhood won about half of Egypt’s parliamentary seats, but its main candidate Khairat al-Shater was disqualified last month from running for president and Mursi has struggled to win wide support.

Hard-line Salafi Islamists were parliamentary elections’ biggest surprise, taking around 25% of seats.

Instead, the two front-runners are Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh – a former Brotherhood figure who has won the backing of a broad range of voters from liberals to Salafis – and Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League chief.

A presidential election, which starts on May 23-24, will choose a replacement for Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in February last year.

Poll numbers released Monday by the state-run Al-Ahram Center show Moussa leading the field with 39%, followed by Abol Fotouh with 24%, former Mubarak premier Ahmed Shafiq with 17% and Mursi in fourth with just 7%.

Stock said Amr Moussa has a significant chance of replacing Mubarak.

“Many people want Islamist values but are afraid that Islamist control of the presidency in addition to parliament could be bad for tourism and foreign investment. Others simply like Moussa,” he said. “He is a radical nationalist with a pragmatic streak, and from a Western point of view is the best we can hope for now that Omar Suleiman has been excluded.”

“But we can’t rule out Mohamed Mursi yet – the Brotherhood machine is extremely formidable, and nearly everyone has underestimated them before,” he said, adding that “the Salafis remain wild cards, as ever.”
“The capital of the caliphate – the capital of the United States of the Arabs – will be Jerusalem, God willing,” Higazi said. “Our capital shall not be in Cairo, Mecca or Medina,” he said, before leading the crowd in chants of “Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.”

Higazi is an unaffiliated Islamist who is barred from the United Kingdom for making statements endorsing terror attacks against Israelis. The clip, from Egypt’s Islamist-oriented Al-Nas television station, was aired last week and uploaded to YouTube on Monday by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
(All articles from Sound the Trumpet.ca except last one Jerusalem Post)

[wildernessvoice]

The US and Britian should withdraw there soldiers that are fighting with the rebels.
While they are at it they could fly the terrorist fighters that they flew into Syria right back out.
Too many of us remember that the US and Britian overthrew the elected government of Iran in 1954 and put the Shah in power.
The jig is up. We are onto their crap in these days of instant communication.
How long did it take for the newspaper image of the kids killed to be exposed as a fraud?


"This past weekend, Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter “Allgemeine Zeitung,” quoted sources claiming the Houla massacre was actually committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants.

Immediately following the massacre, WND reported Syria presented the United Nations and the U.S. with information that claimed it was a group affiliated with al-Qaida, armed by Turkey, that slaughtered the civilians in their homes in Houla, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials."

[styky]

There warnings have been there for a long time but is anyone listening viewtopic.php?f=28&t=154607

[Lee Enfield]

Russia and Iran Accuse the United States of Arming Syrian Rebels

TEHRAN — Russia and Iran, Syria’s staunchest allies, on Wednesday accused the United States of sending weapons to opposition forces battling President Bashar al-Assad and his army.

Iran’s foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, and his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, told reporters that it was the United States and its allies — not Russia and Iran — that are seeking to destabilize Syria.

“The U.S. is sending weapons to the opposition in Syria, which are being used against the government of that country,” Mr. Lavrov said.

Mr. Salehi said that besides weapons, foreign troops had been sent into Syria to aid the armed opposition to Mr. Assad. “They have some of their forces operating inside Syria,” Mr. Salehi said, without specifically naming the United States or any other country. “They say they want to prevent massacres but at the same time send weapons — these are double standards.”

The Russian foreign minister reiterated Russia’s longstanding denial of American accusations that his country is sending helicopter gunships to Syria, which will help government troops to fight the opposition. Mr. Lavrov said that Russia is “honoring military contracts” with the Syrian government, but only sending “antiaircraft weapons.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/world ... ebels.html

[Peter O'Donnell]

I have to think that Russia is quite correct in that analysis, war is coming. Syria could provide the spark for a very nasty regional war at almost any moment now, if the Assad regime or anyone in their camp decided to take on Israel to save the regime (to divert opposition to his regime), then NATO would almost certainly be drawn in and even Israel on its own could stage a prolonged war against any number of Arab opponents.

The fact that this is more or less the Biblical scenario of the end time and the prelude to Armageddon is not exactly a difficult decipher at this point either.

Add in the political brinksmanship of the Russian leaders, the naive and foolish world view of President Obama, and the European economic crisis (war always diverts from that as well) -- and you've got an almost impossible task to find a way to avoid war. And it's the warmaking time of year (summer and autumn, try to think of a major war in our northern hemisphere that did not start in the months from June to October or thereabouts).

[wildernessvoice]

I doubt threat of war is something that the Muslim Brotherhood is afraid of.
Can this be a surprise to people as they watched "somebody" in the background encourage and FUND political instability in one country after another in the middle east?

For those that have knowledge of Daniel, Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation we say, "Where is the surprise in this news.".

[Faramir]

Russia should go back to pounding vodka. Indeed, I agree let the Syrian extremists on both sides kill each other. But let's also hold Russia's feet to the fire for arming them. I say we put missiles into Georgia and tell Russia to pull out of Syria or we surround her with missiles wherever we can.

[chainrock]

Revelation13.net: Is the Antichrist Russian President Putin? -- More on Putin and Russia -- a Bible prophecy and New Age analysis



http://www.revelation13.net/Putin.html

[Lee Enfield]

Revelation13.net: Is the Antichrist Russian President Putin? -- More on Putin and Russia -- a Bible prophecy and New Age analysis



http://www.revelation13.net/Putin.html

I actually like what I read about Putin and his rule---but I also realize that their media over there is likely as truthful as ours (NOT!).

[mindyrbusiness]

Syrian peace plan falters; Russia warns against "plots"
http://www.reuters.com/article/slidesho ... 120615#a=6
By Thomas Grove and Oliver Holmes

MOSCOW/BEIRUT | Fri Jun 15, 2012 9:54am EDT

(Reuters) - Both rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are intensifying violence in Syria and striving for military gains rather than peaceful transition, the chief U.N. monitor in Syria said on Friday.

Major-General Robert Mood's comments came as Russia further dug its feet in against Western pressure to topple Assad, insisting it would not discuss a post-Assad Syria.

"Violence over the past 10 days has been intensified, again willingly by both parties, with losses on both sides and at significant risk to our observers," Mood said in Damascus.

"There appears to be a lack of willingness to see a peaceful transition. Instead there is a push towards advancing military positions."

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said discussions regarding a political transformation in Syria after Assad "are not being held and cannot be held, because to decide for the Syrian people contradicts our position completely".

"We do not get involved in overthrowing regimes - neither through approval of unilateral actions by the U.N. Security Council nor by participation in any political plots," he said.

His comments were a response to a remark by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland suggesting Washington and Moscow were discussing a post-Assad strategy in Syria.

Russia's Foreign Ministry also rebutted accusations by U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that Russia was sending attack helicopters to Syria. It said Moscow had made no new deliveries, but had at some point carried out "previously planned repairs of (helicopters), which were delivered to Syria many years ago".

WORLD DIVIDED

World powers are deeply divided over Syria, with Russia and China - both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with veto power - blocking efforts by Western powers to condemn Assad or call for his removal after 15 months of bloodshed.

Violence has surged in recent weeks after government forces and allied militia launched offensives to regain territories controlled by the opposition and rebels abandoned a ceasefire negotiated by international envoy Kofi Annan.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said his worst fears were being realized in Syria.

"Our biggest fear was to reach this point that we are in today, it is almost at a state of civil war. We did what we could, unfortunately the situation is worst," he said on Turkish-language channel CNNTurk.

Britain's U.N. envoy Lyall Grant said on Thursday "it is time for the Security Council to take much tougher action to enforce the Kofi Annan plan," echoing comments on Tuesday by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who suggested the possibility of a no-fly zone.

Human Rights Watch accused Assad's forces of using rape and other sexual violence against men, women and children during the uprising, citing interviews with victims.

"Sexual violence in detention is one of many horrific weapons in the Syrian government's torture arsenal and Syrian security forces regularly use it to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.

"The assaults are not limited to detention facilities - government forces and pro-government shabiha militia members have also sexually assaulted women and girls during home raids and residential sweeps."

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was striving to alleviate growing suffering.

"More and more people are in need of help," said Alexandre Equey, deputy head of the ICRC delegation in Syria. "In some areas, people are unable to get out, and help cannot get in."

Heavy clashes were reported across Syria on Friday. Opposition activists said they would hold peaceful protests. In amateur video posted on the Internet, demonstrators held signs saying: "Russia: enemy number one for the Syrian people."

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Seda Sezer in Istanbul; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Andrew Roche)

[styky]

Russia Flies Anti-Air, Anti-Ship Missiles To Assad As Its Fleet Heads To Tartus
http://www.debka.com/article/22090/Russ ... -to-Tartus

[Faramir]

TYhe west has ZERO business meddling in Syrian affairs. ... or those of any other nation that is not a threat to us.

Uh...the West is NOT meddling...as per this thread, it is the Russians who are doing so

[styky]

Russia, China, Iran Plan To Stage In Syria Biggest Mid East Maneuver
http://www.debka.com/article/22094/Russ ... %e2%80%9d-