Victory in Palmyra
The Syrian Arab Army has achieved yet another major victory. Palmyra the ancient city captured last summer by ISIS has been liberated. A victory not just for Syria but for humanity which nearly lost a priceless piece of cultural heritage to the evil schemes of the Empire of Chaos to erase the worlds history. Not content with waging war on the Syrian people, destroying, schools, hospitals, power stations, food, and anything else necessary for the survival of Syria's people they even waged war on Syria's ancient monuments. Given Syria's incredibly rich history which spans thousands of years and included many ancient civilizations the Assyrians, Hittites, Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and later it's glorious role in the medieval christian and Islamic world; a war on Syria's history is a war on world history both western and eastern. During the reign of Zenobia one of the great women of the ancient world Palmyra became the center of some of the most beautiful art of the classical world. Of course the reason for Palmyra's rich history was it's vital strategic position sitting atop the trade routes which ironically in our own day have been replaced by the weapons pipelines to the death squads. The victory at Palmyra represents a major strategic gain disrupting flows of weapons and supplies to terrorists all over Syria. It is thankfully a sign of even more victories in the coming months. Syria may one day be reunited and freed from occupation by the terrible NATO backed death squads who have inflicted so many terrifying horrors on the Syrian people. Already the liberation of Palmyra has lead to plans for new offensives.
But before I return to the liberation of Palmyra and it's wider implications there were other important events that I must deal with as well. Most important NATO has stepped up it's war on Libya and has managed to spark a full scale civil. The war on Libya never ended with Libya becoming a playground for the CIA and other axis of chaos (US-Israel-NATO-GCC) intelligence agencies, along with the special forces, mercenaries, and terrorists of half the world. They are there to ensure that Libyans never regain control of their country. However there is every sign that by basically announcing a second Libyan War (or 3rd or 4th.. if you count Reagan's murderous attacks in the 80s) they have pushed things too far and have provoked fierce resistance. The struggle for freedom will continue in Libya where ignored by the world the people of Libya continue their war of liberation against NATO and it's terrorist proxies.
Of course their was other big news more well known to the world. The Brussels attacks provoked yet another round of racist hysteria against muslims. When will the ignorant west learn to distinguish Takfiri terrorists of the wahabi sect from Muslims in general? However for those familiar with the workings of the Gladio and the Gladio B networks the attacks were blatant staged provocations. The only thing more obvious would be to stage an ISIS attack in Langley Virginia where the CIA is based because Brussels is the headquarters not just of the EU but of NATO. NATO headquarters is where the Gladio network is controlled from. Check out my June 2014 article on Operation GLADIO for more info. Sibel Edmonds exposed the whole absurd nature of the attack laughing at the terrorists "costumes" for there is no other word to describe their outfits which included each terrorists wearing a single black glove. The whole ISIS phenomenon seems to owe a lot to thirty something CIA agents who watched too many bad 80's action movies as kids. ISIS is the poisonous fruit of the Reagan era, part Cobra (from G.I Joe), part ninja b movie, part over the top Friday the 13th style slasher movie. I strongly suggest the people of Belgium follow the french example and evict NATO headquarters from their land. After all GLADIO was also caught staging mass shootings in Belgian supermarkets during the 80's as Daniele Ganser explained in his definitive book "NATO's Secret Armies." How many more people will be sacrificed in the name of this "strategy of tension."
Just days prior to the Brussels attacks Russia announced that it was withdrawing it's forces from Syria. Once again Putin had pulled off one of his big surprises unfortunately this time causing initial shock and concern among supporters of Syria. Thankfully on closer examination this was no more a real withdrawal then the cessation of hostilities was an actual cessation of hostilities. In reality Russia is not leaving Syria merely reducing their forces in response to the successes that have already been achieved. Of course in the wake of the victory at Palmyra this became obvious as Russia had mercilessly bombed the road leading to Palmyra assisting the SAA in their advances. And Russia's aid was not merely in the air. The role of the legendary Spetsnaz special forces in the role was again revealed when the heroic Alexander Prokhorenko was killed in Syria. He had been working behind ISIS lines helping to guide the Russian airstrikes. ISIS discovered him and surrounded and outgunned he called in an airstrike on his own position rather then surrendering. The brave Spetsnaz soldiers played a vital role in allowing Russia to target ISIS while avoiding further damaging Syria's archaeological heritage. In the wake of the victory in Palmyra Russia has generously agreed to send it's bomb disposal teams with their robots and bomb sniffing dogs to help defuse the many booby traps the terrorists left behind. This is a favorite tactic of the death squads whenever they retreat they leave all sorts of explosives behind. Many civilians have been killed when cunningly hidden devices in their homes explode after they return. It says a lot about the rebels not content with reducing Syria to ruins it then fills those ruins with mines and IEDs turning the whole nation into a death trap.
There were also some sinister diplomatic games going on but we can only hope it will all be rendered meaningless by this continued offensive by the SAA which is retaking more and more of the country. As Syria expert Tim Anderson explained recently the plan to balkanize Syria and Iraq to create a "new middle east" seems to have had the opposite effect of that planned. Anderson points to creation of a new power bloc the 4 + 2 Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria being the 4 and Hezbollah and the Palestine resistance groups like PFLP and the PLA that sided against the Axis of chaos backed invasion being the 2. If they can remain united the balance of power will forever change in the middle east bringing a long dreamed of stability. Needless to say the empire of chaos will stop at nothing to destroy this new alliance and are using all their diplomatic, media, and economic weapons to bear on spreading mistrust and division with the CIA and a host of other intel agencies pulling the string. Obviously their allies in the Axis of Chaos are even more intent on disrupting this new alliance. Luckily both the Russians and the Iranians are also masters of devious diplomatic games. Luckily the arrogance of the Axis of Chaos only serves to delay progress on the negotiations which will only make Syria's negotiating position stronger as time goes on. Still we must beware of any attempts to sacrifice the interests of Syria in the name of some illusion of a deal with the west who never give up their schemes to destroy Syria or Iran, Russia and China for that matter. It is the Syrians who have lost 75,000 soldiers battling the terrorists ultimately this is Syria's victory however valuable the support of it's allies. It was their sacrifice that ensured the survival of Syria.
Now to return to the battlefields of Syria. The capture of Palmyra by ISIS last year was a major loss for Syria forcing it to divert forces east allowing the death squads to make dangerous gains in Lattakia. Of course the US which had begun illegally bombing Syria on the excuse of "fighting ISIS" did nothing to prevent this offensive because they had doubtless secretly given the green light for it to take place in the first place. Once in control of the city which luckily had been largely evacuated in time ISIS killed countless civilians in the nearby town of Tadmur. ISIS destroyed priceless archaeological treasures they murdered the Archaeologist Khaled-Al Assad and staged a mass execution of the SAA in Palmyra's ancient amphitheater. They made a fortune looting the oil and artifacts.
The city was recaptured after an epic battle in which the SAA, NDF, and their allies Hezbollah, Iraq, Iran, and even Russian special forces took a terrible revenge on the ISIS death squads who after being cut off from supplies, bombed by the Russian and Syrian air forces and surrounded were killed without mercy. Hundreds of them died. The whole operation was very precise skillfully avoiding damaging the ruins or killing civilians trapped in the area. In one dramatic episode the terrorists who had wired the ruins to explode were killed before they had a chance to detonate their explosives in a daring surprise attack. Once again the Dessert Falcons distinguished themselves in the fighting adding Palmyra to the list of their victories in Lattakia, and Aleppo. The fighting was brutal and many brave Syrians gave their lives to liberate the city. In addition to the terrorists they faced the dangers of the thousands of mines and IEDs they had rigged the area with.
Now To give a brief account of the battle based on Ziad Fadel of Syrian Perspectives more detailed day to day version. A couple of days before the offensive campaign began the SAA in the area received massive reinforcements including many Desert Falcons and Syrian special forces as well as some help from their allies. The Russians mounted a stepped up air campaign launching hundreds of airstrikes at defensive positions and destroying anyone attempting to bring supplies to the ISIS forces. Then the offensive began from the East, West, And South. They also managed to capture important strategic mountains near the city that provided valuable access routes into the city. Then the SAA managed to seize the strategic points that ISIS had occupied at Syria Tel tower and the Citadel at Palmyra ISIS were trapped and slaughtered. The Citadel was itself an important part of Syria's historical heritage. This was the most dramatic moment of the battle and the people of Syria rejoiced at this victory. The SAA also managed to capture the Hotel District. With the capture of Al' Amiyrah "the pincers began to close" The Syrian Armies victories had been slow and costly ISIS had rigged car bombs along all the main and secondary roads. Because of their losses they held back and allowed ISIS to flee defying the orders of their commanders in al Raqqa. However the only places to escape to are the future targets of the SAA's next offensives Al Sukhna, Al Raqqa and Deir Ezzor. Once they had fled the city the Russian and Syrian air force bombed any stragglers they could find. Hopefully the survivors will spread panic and confusion to the ISIS strongholds they flee to. It is part of a strategy to tame the terrorists in the west the terrorists are being taught to stop fighting, while in the East they are being taught to flee or to die.
Palmyra became an important center of trade because of it's strategic position and it is just as strategically important today. Like the victory at Aleppo the Victory at Palmyra will cause major disruption in ISIS supply lines. It will also cut off a valuable source for their black market funding from the sale of oil and antiquities. This victory will pave the way for new victories and already the SAA are laying siege to the terrorist stronghold of al Sukhna. They are also planning the liberation of the ISIS capital at al Raqqa. They also plan to finally lift the Siege at Deir Ezzor where for years the SAA and the civilian militias of the NDF have heroically refused to surrender despite being deep in ISIS held territory and under constant attack. The victory at Palmyra was also a product of the coordination of the 4 + 2. By keeping pressure on the Iraqi front which has also seen important recent victories they were able to prevent ISIS from reinforcing Palmyra. We can only hope that the SAA is able to continue it's victorious series of offensives only then will the people of Syria know some form of a well earned peace. Victory to Syria!
Sources
The Latest Report from Syria 360 Syria prepares new offensives
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2016/03/31/syrian-front-3/
The Liberation of Palmyra
http://www.activistpost.com/2016/03/the-liberation-of-palmyra-us-narratives-and-nato-terrorists-defeated-in-the-syrian-desert.html
Syrian Perspective on the Battle of Palmyra
http://syrianperspective.com/2016/03/palmyra-hand-to-hand-combat-in-the-streets-isis-reeling-from-attrition.html
http://syrianperspective.com/2016/03/syrian-army-conquers-palmyras-citadel-and-the-syriatel-tower-onwards-to-the-heart-of-palmyra.html
http://syrianperspective.com/2016/03/palmyra-liberated-general-ayyoob-reviews-troops-in-aftermath-of-enormous-victory-whats-next.html
Tim Anderson on the War in Syria Subscribe to the Hands off Syria channel for more parts to this great lecture in commemoration of 5 Years of War in Syria
http://youtu.be/VvOlW7OjbY0
And Jasmine Sadat also gave heartbreaking lecture with special emphasis on the plight of women in Syria who are targeted with rape and slavery.
http://youtu.be/8XooUltPBoM
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Thursday, March 24, 2016
War on Latin America
Operation Condor Never Ended: Assassinations and Coup Plots Continue Across Latin America
Dedicated To Alexandra Valiente in appreciation of her great selection of coverage on Latin America at Libya 360.
Latin America is an often forgotten theater in World War 4 America's war on the planet that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union. In many ways World War 4 is merely a continuation of World War 3 aka the Cold War and nowhere is this more apparent then in Latin America. Wherever the US maintained it's control it carried on with the horrific dirty war assassinating anyone who dares to dream and work for a better world. The recent murder of COPINH co-founder Berta Caceres has briefly drawn attention to this never ending wave of murder and assassinations. In My October 2015 article Operation Condor based on J. Patrice McSherry's excellent "Predatory States" I dealt with this campaign of torture, murder and assassination that continues to this day to terrorize Latin America. Colombia is one of the most terrible examples hundreds of thousands have been murdered, raped, tortured over the past 50 Years. Millions have been driven from their lands and Colombia's dirty war is second only to Syria in the number of refugees that have been created. Mexico is perhaps even worse where 160,000 have died in the ever expanding phony war on drugs. On a smaller scale the same things are taking place in Honduras the most dangerous country in the world for environmental activists.
Not even the attention Berta Caceres murder has drawn has slowed the wave of killings days later Nelson Noel Garcia was also killed the 15th activist murdered so far this year alone in Honduras. As if this wave of terror is not enough the US is backing coups against the governments that continue to defy it in places like Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil. This is part of a much wider campaign aimed at the BRICS countries and their allies targeting Russia and China obviously but also South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Iran and many other countries. The empire of chaos has been quite successful in waging economic war on the planet by sending commodity prices tumbling they have managed to destabilize countries around the world. The future of the planet depends on halting this renewed imperialist offensive aimed at reversing all that the late Hugo Chavez was able to accomplish in liberating much of Latin America from US domination. Chavez's death was perhaps the most high profile of these assassinations new details emerged recently about his death. His bodyguard has been revealed to be a CIA/DEA informant who likely was involved in his death. However since I plan to focus on the lesser known victims you'll have to read about the details in the sources below.
Not content with murdering the great revolutionary Hugo Chavez the empire of chaos decided to humiliate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Brazil's former president having him dragged away in handcuffs on nationwide television in order to prevent his political comeback aimed at stabilizing the Rousseff government who is the object of a political corruption witch hunt. Meanwhile Dilma Rousseff faces a US funded color revolution attempt funded by the Koch brothers among others. Pepe Escobar who is from Brazil wrote the definitive account of this shameful episode. Basically the Right wing which is far more corrupt then Brazil's workers party is hypocritically trying to oust Dilma using a trumped up investigation that selectively prosecutes only the left. I can't help be reminded of the coup in Ukraine where the far more corrupt Yanukovych regime was ousted and yet the US somehow had managed to find even more dangerous thieves to replace him. Only the empire of Chaos could figure out how to make the most corrupt country in the world 10 times worse. Obviously then corruption is the last thing in the world the US actually wants to combat ask the Vietnamese, the Iraqis, Afghanis where the US set up some of the most corrupt governments imaginable. Along with the political war there is a media war using Brazils Oligarch owned media to constantly attack and attempt to discredit Dilma Rousseff. Luckily despite the Media barrage in Brazil against Rousseff many Brazilians were not fooled and thousands poured into the streets in opposition to this coup attempt. Seeing their beloved former President Lula being arrested was just too much.
Thousands of Venezuelans also took to the streets in a massive anti-imperialist march in response to Obama's repeating the same absurd lie that made him a laughingstock last year namely that Venezuela was a threat to United States national security. The murder of Chavez, the failed coup against Maduro, and this current soft coup attempt by the opposition controlled national assembly are ample evidence that as usual this was turning truth on it's head. Meanwhile in Argentina where the soft coup has been a success the new President Macri has declared all out class war on his own people firing thousands, smashing protests with riot police firing rubber bullets that can cripple or kill. He has started a campaign to attempt to vilify former president Christina Fernandez-Kirchner. He also decided to hand over Billions to vulture capitalists for no apparent reason other then doubtless secret rewards and secret orders from his CIA masters. In Bolivia Evo Morales lost an important vote that would have allowed him to run for another term in office. In Ecuador another destabilization campaign is raging. All of the progressive governments of Latin America are under assault and Argentina is already fallen. The whole world must oppose the dangerous rebirth of fascism in Argentina where one of the ugliest chapters in the dirty war took place in the 70's and 80's. And it must oppose the dangerous threat that the whole continent could once again fall under the control of fascism repeating all the horrors of Operation Condor.
As you will see this is no exaggeration there is no limit to the horrors the US has been committing in those countries that never escaped their control like Colombia or Mexico. In Honduras a 2009 coup has unleashed a wave of murder targeting activists. Hillary Clinton oversaw a coup that lead to a massive increase in violence against women rape, torture, and murder are skyrocketing. Yet even in the face of this wave of repression activists in Honduras have been organizing the poor and the indigenous, to resist attempts to force them off their land so that the local elites can build a dam. Berta Caceres was one of the most important of these activists founding COPINH and struggling fearlessly in the face of death threats from dangerous death squads to fight on behalf of indigenous land rights. Her life had been in danger for many years but she refused to back down and was finally murdered one of her comrades Gustavo Castro was shot twice during the attack and then arrested. Yet despite drawing world attention the Dirty War on Honduras continues uninterrupted. Another COPINH member Nelson Garcia was killed. Dozens more have been imprisoned beaten, tortured. Others narrowly escaped assassination attempts. Honduras remains the most dangerous country in the world for environmental activists. Meanwhile the death squads & their masters the local oligarchs who are deeply involved in drug trafficking retain complete impunity. Needless to say their american masters who were responsible for setting up the death squads in Honduras as part of Operation Condor's expansion into central america will never be discussed let alone punished. I should note that Predatory States has an excellent chapter on the creation of Honduras' Death Squads. Future "Queen of Chaos" as Diana Johnstone calls Hillary in her new book bragged openly in her memoirs about her role in the 2009 coup . Just one of the countries she destroyed along with Haiti and Libya to name the most obvious examples. With the possible exception of the first Bush I'm hard pressed to think of an example since Nixon who where a presidential candidate has been involved in so many war crimes before even coming to office. Remember Berta Caceres and the many other heroic activists of Honduras who have given their lives in the fight for justice.
Colombia has been the scene of 50 years of Dirty War. 220,000 people have been killed 7 million displaced. 50 Years ago the American advisers arrived and since then their has been an ongoing dirty war. Actually the war began even before that with an earlier civil war known as La Violencia but I don't have time to go into the complex history of Colombia birth place of one of my favorite writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In his famous novel "100 Years of Solitude" he depicted the massacre of workers by the United Fruit company better known for it's later role in the Guatemalan coup which has lead to 60 years of dirty war in Guatemala that continues to this day with activists still being murdered. Apologies for the tangent I couldn't resist pointing out the interconnected nature of the war on Latin America even then. Guatemala should not be forgotten even though I don't have time to deal with it today.
To return to Colombia the advisers arrived before the revolution had even begun. Ironically the FARC would form in response to the dirty war being waged by the US in their country who were using it as yet another experiment in their counter-insurgency doctrine. Death Squads were formed to kill any potential opposition the oligarchs used them to drive peasants off their lands so that they could expand their holdings. FARC was formed to defend the peasants and fought for years to defend the people of Colombia against the dirty war. Currently they are attempting to sign a peace deal with the Santos Government. But of course peace is obviously the last thing the empire of chaos is interested in and doubtless have given the green light to the former President Uribe to disrupt things. Uribe is a close friend of the US he is also a major drug trafficker as the DIA admits in addition to being a former death squad commander. He oversaw the massive expansion of privatized death squads while in office. Of course it was the US itself which oversaw a massive expansion of this war back in the late 90's as a result of their infamous Plan Colombia. Needless to say the "War on Drugs" is just as absurd as the war on terror with the United States spending billions funding the forces they are claiming to be fighting. Obviously I have more then enough to deal with in covering this dirty war being waged on two continents to go into the fraudulent nature of this war. Check out Doug Valentines two books "Strength of the Wolf" and "Strength of the Pack" for an inside account of this war which is also responsible for putting millions of people in prison within the US itself. Also check out Peter Dale Scott's "American War Machine" and "Drugs, Oil and War" for even more on the topic. The CIA creates drug dealing networks as part of their covert wars. They created first the golden triangle in south east Asia and then the golden crescent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Today Afghanistan supplies 90% of the Worlds Heroin when the CIA first arrived they had only a tiny share in the global drug trade. The money ends up in the big banks the capitalists are in league with the gangsters and always have been. Hundreds of billions of dollars from the illegal drug trade are the only things preventing a complete financial collapse by the big banks. Meanwhile the money is used to buy politicians in the United States and around the world. In reality America is just as much of a Narco-State as countries like Colombia or Mexico.
Thus it should come as no surprise that the billions in military aid was sent to train the drug traffickers death squads so they could kill union leaders who threatened america's corporate profits. They set up an incentive system for high body counts and the Army and the death squads started murdering random people and dressing them up as guerrillas so they could claim their reward. The Death squads were used to drive people from their lands so the big landowners could steal even more land leading to millions of displaced persons. The death squads were trained by CIA, Special forces, and mercenary companies to kill people in the most horrific manner possible in order to terrify the population into submission. Rape, torture, and ISIS Style mutilation became commonplace. As in Honduras violence against women has skyrocketed. Not content with terrorizing it's own citizens Colombia has exported it's death squads and criminal networks to Venezuela where they have sent the crime rate through the roof. But of course it is far worse then that! The United States regards Plan Colombia as a major success story. After all Colombia remains under their control. Thus Colombia has been selected as their proxy in spreading mercenaries and death squads around the world. The US recruits Colombian forces to train police and militaries around the world. Colombia has also become a major recruiting ground for american owned mercenary firms like Xe formerly blackwater a fact that has been exposed as Colombian mercenaries have died as part of the US backed Saudi war on Yemen.
Unsurprisingly despite the peace negotiations with FARC or rather because of the peace negotiations Colombia has only further increased their terror campaign. So many activists have been murdered there in recent weeks that I can't list them all. However I can give names to at least a couple recent victims. Klaus Zapata was a member of the Marcha Patriotica which is a huge coalition of progressive groups in Colombia. He was also a member of the Bogata Anti-Fascist Coordination. He had heroically tried to defend the people from the death squads on previous occasions and so was murdered while playing soccer. Only hours before his death Rigoberto Abello, and William Sanchez his comrades had been seized and tortured. Jorge Luis Sanchez was murdered by death squads riding motorcycles and wielding machine guns who attacked a group of artisanal miners to force them off the land then sprayed a panicked crowd with bullets. The Latest victim is Luis Rodriguez Castro. This surge in killings is seen as an attempt to sabotage the peace negotiations by former President Uribe. The last time the guerrillas agreed to make peace they were simply murdered in cold blood. Unfortunately for FARC their desire for peace will prove impossible given the ruthless nature of the Colombian government and it's even more ruthless backers in Washington.
Unfortunately I won't be able to do justice to Mexico perhaps the most complex of all the dirty wars. Mexico is bursting with revolutionary activity and the murder of activists by death squads is perhaps even more common there. Then there are the wars between the drug cartels who often employ the police and military to fight for them allowing for the illusion of a war on drugs in what is in reality an endless war between the oligarchs for control of the drug trade. Of course the United States is intervening to spread chaos and disaster so a weakened Mexico will be even more vulnerable for exploitation. They have secretly flooded the country with guns for the gangs while sending in the usual array of advisers to fight Mexico's equally endless dirty war. To defend themselves from the drug Cartels people have begun forming self defense units. The Government has responded by framing their leaders and locking them up. In addition there are still revolutionary movements like the Zapatistas and indigenous groups fighting to defend their lands like the Yaqui who have a fascinating history of resistance. To do it all justice would require books not a paragraph or two. However I can recommend a new series I discovered on Libya 360 which attempts to document the many social movements in Mexico as well as describing the constant string of murders, tortures, and unjust imprisonment they face. It's called Insumision and It's Written By Scott Campbell of the El Enemigo Comun site each one has been epic in scope but you'll have to read it for yourself.
The fate of two continents lie in the balance. The Bolivarian bloc cannot afford to fall because not only would it destroy one of the few rays of hope in the world it would undoubtedly unleash the same nightmare in Venezuela, Brazil, and Ecuador that it has brought to Honduras, Mexico, and Colombia. In Argentina it may already be too late but the people must be supported as they resist this new rebirth of fascism. Venezuela and Brazil must be defended at all cost. The world can no longer ignore the horrors of the war on the people of Colombia, Mexico, and Honduras. Despite the dangers they face the people continue to struggle for justice and we must offer them our solidarity and support. Obama Ironically is in Cuba where he asked us to forget the past. We must never forget the past or ignore the present. The revolutionary spirit of Latin America is an inspiration to the world.
Sources
The Forces behind the Murder of Berta Caceres
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/drugs-dams-and-power-the-murder-of-honduran-activist-berta-caceres/
Wave of Assassinations of Activists in Colombia
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/wave-of-right-wing-violence-threatens-peace-for-colombia/
New Details in the Assassination of Hugo Chavez
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/the-murder-of-chavez-the-cia-and-dea-cover-their-tracks/
An analysis of Colombia's Dirty War by James Petras
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2015/09/01/colombias-killing-fields-peace-is-war/
50 Years of War in Colombia 220,000 Killed
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/plan-colombia-and-us-backed-death-squads/
The Latest Insumision
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/insumision-victories-dont-slow-the-struggle/
The El Enemigo Comun Site
http://elenemigocomun.net
Eric Draitser has started a great series on the War on The BRICS the first one is on Brazil
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/brics-under-attack-the-empire-strikes-back-in-brazil/
Pepe Escobar on the soft coup attempt in Brazil
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/23/brazils-revolution-starting-to-reveal-its-true-colors/
Repression continues in Honduras
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/honduras-interview-with-rafael-alegria-mp-and-leader-of-via-campesina/
Dedicated To Alexandra Valiente in appreciation of her great selection of coverage on Latin America at Libya 360.
Latin America is an often forgotten theater in World War 4 America's war on the planet that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union. In many ways World War 4 is merely a continuation of World War 3 aka the Cold War and nowhere is this more apparent then in Latin America. Wherever the US maintained it's control it carried on with the horrific dirty war assassinating anyone who dares to dream and work for a better world. The recent murder of COPINH co-founder Berta Caceres has briefly drawn attention to this never ending wave of murder and assassinations. In My October 2015 article Operation Condor based on J. Patrice McSherry's excellent "Predatory States" I dealt with this campaign of torture, murder and assassination that continues to this day to terrorize Latin America. Colombia is one of the most terrible examples hundreds of thousands have been murdered, raped, tortured over the past 50 Years. Millions have been driven from their lands and Colombia's dirty war is second only to Syria in the number of refugees that have been created. Mexico is perhaps even worse where 160,000 have died in the ever expanding phony war on drugs. On a smaller scale the same things are taking place in Honduras the most dangerous country in the world for environmental activists.
Not even the attention Berta Caceres murder has drawn has slowed the wave of killings days later Nelson Noel Garcia was also killed the 15th activist murdered so far this year alone in Honduras. As if this wave of terror is not enough the US is backing coups against the governments that continue to defy it in places like Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil. This is part of a much wider campaign aimed at the BRICS countries and their allies targeting Russia and China obviously but also South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Iran and many other countries. The empire of chaos has been quite successful in waging economic war on the planet by sending commodity prices tumbling they have managed to destabilize countries around the world. The future of the planet depends on halting this renewed imperialist offensive aimed at reversing all that the late Hugo Chavez was able to accomplish in liberating much of Latin America from US domination. Chavez's death was perhaps the most high profile of these assassinations new details emerged recently about his death. His bodyguard has been revealed to be a CIA/DEA informant who likely was involved in his death. However since I plan to focus on the lesser known victims you'll have to read about the details in the sources below.
Not content with murdering the great revolutionary Hugo Chavez the empire of chaos decided to humiliate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Brazil's former president having him dragged away in handcuffs on nationwide television in order to prevent his political comeback aimed at stabilizing the Rousseff government who is the object of a political corruption witch hunt. Meanwhile Dilma Rousseff faces a US funded color revolution attempt funded by the Koch brothers among others. Pepe Escobar who is from Brazil wrote the definitive account of this shameful episode. Basically the Right wing which is far more corrupt then Brazil's workers party is hypocritically trying to oust Dilma using a trumped up investigation that selectively prosecutes only the left. I can't help be reminded of the coup in Ukraine where the far more corrupt Yanukovych regime was ousted and yet the US somehow had managed to find even more dangerous thieves to replace him. Only the empire of Chaos could figure out how to make the most corrupt country in the world 10 times worse. Obviously then corruption is the last thing in the world the US actually wants to combat ask the Vietnamese, the Iraqis, Afghanis where the US set up some of the most corrupt governments imaginable. Along with the political war there is a media war using Brazils Oligarch owned media to constantly attack and attempt to discredit Dilma Rousseff. Luckily despite the Media barrage in Brazil against Rousseff many Brazilians were not fooled and thousands poured into the streets in opposition to this coup attempt. Seeing their beloved former President Lula being arrested was just too much.
Thousands of Venezuelans also took to the streets in a massive anti-imperialist march in response to Obama's repeating the same absurd lie that made him a laughingstock last year namely that Venezuela was a threat to United States national security. The murder of Chavez, the failed coup against Maduro, and this current soft coup attempt by the opposition controlled national assembly are ample evidence that as usual this was turning truth on it's head. Meanwhile in Argentina where the soft coup has been a success the new President Macri has declared all out class war on his own people firing thousands, smashing protests with riot police firing rubber bullets that can cripple or kill. He has started a campaign to attempt to vilify former president Christina Fernandez-Kirchner. He also decided to hand over Billions to vulture capitalists for no apparent reason other then doubtless secret rewards and secret orders from his CIA masters. In Bolivia Evo Morales lost an important vote that would have allowed him to run for another term in office. In Ecuador another destabilization campaign is raging. All of the progressive governments of Latin America are under assault and Argentina is already fallen. The whole world must oppose the dangerous rebirth of fascism in Argentina where one of the ugliest chapters in the dirty war took place in the 70's and 80's. And it must oppose the dangerous threat that the whole continent could once again fall under the control of fascism repeating all the horrors of Operation Condor.
As you will see this is no exaggeration there is no limit to the horrors the US has been committing in those countries that never escaped their control like Colombia or Mexico. In Honduras a 2009 coup has unleashed a wave of murder targeting activists. Hillary Clinton oversaw a coup that lead to a massive increase in violence against women rape, torture, and murder are skyrocketing. Yet even in the face of this wave of repression activists in Honduras have been organizing the poor and the indigenous, to resist attempts to force them off their land so that the local elites can build a dam. Berta Caceres was one of the most important of these activists founding COPINH and struggling fearlessly in the face of death threats from dangerous death squads to fight on behalf of indigenous land rights. Her life had been in danger for many years but she refused to back down and was finally murdered one of her comrades Gustavo Castro was shot twice during the attack and then arrested. Yet despite drawing world attention the Dirty War on Honduras continues uninterrupted. Another COPINH member Nelson Garcia was killed. Dozens more have been imprisoned beaten, tortured. Others narrowly escaped assassination attempts. Honduras remains the most dangerous country in the world for environmental activists. Meanwhile the death squads & their masters the local oligarchs who are deeply involved in drug trafficking retain complete impunity. Needless to say their american masters who were responsible for setting up the death squads in Honduras as part of Operation Condor's expansion into central america will never be discussed let alone punished. I should note that Predatory States has an excellent chapter on the creation of Honduras' Death Squads. Future "Queen of Chaos" as Diana Johnstone calls Hillary in her new book bragged openly in her memoirs about her role in the 2009 coup . Just one of the countries she destroyed along with Haiti and Libya to name the most obvious examples. With the possible exception of the first Bush I'm hard pressed to think of an example since Nixon who where a presidential candidate has been involved in so many war crimes before even coming to office. Remember Berta Caceres and the many other heroic activists of Honduras who have given their lives in the fight for justice.
Colombia has been the scene of 50 years of Dirty War. 220,000 people have been killed 7 million displaced. 50 Years ago the American advisers arrived and since then their has been an ongoing dirty war. Actually the war began even before that with an earlier civil war known as La Violencia but I don't have time to go into the complex history of Colombia birth place of one of my favorite writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In his famous novel "100 Years of Solitude" he depicted the massacre of workers by the United Fruit company better known for it's later role in the Guatemalan coup which has lead to 60 years of dirty war in Guatemala that continues to this day with activists still being murdered. Apologies for the tangent I couldn't resist pointing out the interconnected nature of the war on Latin America even then. Guatemala should not be forgotten even though I don't have time to deal with it today.
To return to Colombia the advisers arrived before the revolution had even begun. Ironically the FARC would form in response to the dirty war being waged by the US in their country who were using it as yet another experiment in their counter-insurgency doctrine. Death Squads were formed to kill any potential opposition the oligarchs used them to drive peasants off their lands so that they could expand their holdings. FARC was formed to defend the peasants and fought for years to defend the people of Colombia against the dirty war. Currently they are attempting to sign a peace deal with the Santos Government. But of course peace is obviously the last thing the empire of chaos is interested in and doubtless have given the green light to the former President Uribe to disrupt things. Uribe is a close friend of the US he is also a major drug trafficker as the DIA admits in addition to being a former death squad commander. He oversaw the massive expansion of privatized death squads while in office. Of course it was the US itself which oversaw a massive expansion of this war back in the late 90's as a result of their infamous Plan Colombia. Needless to say the "War on Drugs" is just as absurd as the war on terror with the United States spending billions funding the forces they are claiming to be fighting. Obviously I have more then enough to deal with in covering this dirty war being waged on two continents to go into the fraudulent nature of this war. Check out Doug Valentines two books "Strength of the Wolf" and "Strength of the Pack" for an inside account of this war which is also responsible for putting millions of people in prison within the US itself. Also check out Peter Dale Scott's "American War Machine" and "Drugs, Oil and War" for even more on the topic. The CIA creates drug dealing networks as part of their covert wars. They created first the golden triangle in south east Asia and then the golden crescent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Today Afghanistan supplies 90% of the Worlds Heroin when the CIA first arrived they had only a tiny share in the global drug trade. The money ends up in the big banks the capitalists are in league with the gangsters and always have been. Hundreds of billions of dollars from the illegal drug trade are the only things preventing a complete financial collapse by the big banks. Meanwhile the money is used to buy politicians in the United States and around the world. In reality America is just as much of a Narco-State as countries like Colombia or Mexico.
Thus it should come as no surprise that the billions in military aid was sent to train the drug traffickers death squads so they could kill union leaders who threatened america's corporate profits. They set up an incentive system for high body counts and the Army and the death squads started murdering random people and dressing them up as guerrillas so they could claim their reward. The Death squads were used to drive people from their lands so the big landowners could steal even more land leading to millions of displaced persons. The death squads were trained by CIA, Special forces, and mercenary companies to kill people in the most horrific manner possible in order to terrify the population into submission. Rape, torture, and ISIS Style mutilation became commonplace. As in Honduras violence against women has skyrocketed. Not content with terrorizing it's own citizens Colombia has exported it's death squads and criminal networks to Venezuela where they have sent the crime rate through the roof. But of course it is far worse then that! The United States regards Plan Colombia as a major success story. After all Colombia remains under their control. Thus Colombia has been selected as their proxy in spreading mercenaries and death squads around the world. The US recruits Colombian forces to train police and militaries around the world. Colombia has also become a major recruiting ground for american owned mercenary firms like Xe formerly blackwater a fact that has been exposed as Colombian mercenaries have died as part of the US backed Saudi war on Yemen.
Unsurprisingly despite the peace negotiations with FARC or rather because of the peace negotiations Colombia has only further increased their terror campaign. So many activists have been murdered there in recent weeks that I can't list them all. However I can give names to at least a couple recent victims. Klaus Zapata was a member of the Marcha Patriotica which is a huge coalition of progressive groups in Colombia. He was also a member of the Bogata Anti-Fascist Coordination. He had heroically tried to defend the people from the death squads on previous occasions and so was murdered while playing soccer. Only hours before his death Rigoberto Abello, and William Sanchez his comrades had been seized and tortured. Jorge Luis Sanchez was murdered by death squads riding motorcycles and wielding machine guns who attacked a group of artisanal miners to force them off the land then sprayed a panicked crowd with bullets. The Latest victim is Luis Rodriguez Castro. This surge in killings is seen as an attempt to sabotage the peace negotiations by former President Uribe. The last time the guerrillas agreed to make peace they were simply murdered in cold blood. Unfortunately for FARC their desire for peace will prove impossible given the ruthless nature of the Colombian government and it's even more ruthless backers in Washington.
Unfortunately I won't be able to do justice to Mexico perhaps the most complex of all the dirty wars. Mexico is bursting with revolutionary activity and the murder of activists by death squads is perhaps even more common there. Then there are the wars between the drug cartels who often employ the police and military to fight for them allowing for the illusion of a war on drugs in what is in reality an endless war between the oligarchs for control of the drug trade. Of course the United States is intervening to spread chaos and disaster so a weakened Mexico will be even more vulnerable for exploitation. They have secretly flooded the country with guns for the gangs while sending in the usual array of advisers to fight Mexico's equally endless dirty war. To defend themselves from the drug Cartels people have begun forming self defense units. The Government has responded by framing their leaders and locking them up. In addition there are still revolutionary movements like the Zapatistas and indigenous groups fighting to defend their lands like the Yaqui who have a fascinating history of resistance. To do it all justice would require books not a paragraph or two. However I can recommend a new series I discovered on Libya 360 which attempts to document the many social movements in Mexico as well as describing the constant string of murders, tortures, and unjust imprisonment they face. It's called Insumision and It's Written By Scott Campbell of the El Enemigo Comun site each one has been epic in scope but you'll have to read it for yourself.
The fate of two continents lie in the balance. The Bolivarian bloc cannot afford to fall because not only would it destroy one of the few rays of hope in the world it would undoubtedly unleash the same nightmare in Venezuela, Brazil, and Ecuador that it has brought to Honduras, Mexico, and Colombia. In Argentina it may already be too late but the people must be supported as they resist this new rebirth of fascism. Venezuela and Brazil must be defended at all cost. The world can no longer ignore the horrors of the war on the people of Colombia, Mexico, and Honduras. Despite the dangers they face the people continue to struggle for justice and we must offer them our solidarity and support. Obama Ironically is in Cuba where he asked us to forget the past. We must never forget the past or ignore the present. The revolutionary spirit of Latin America is an inspiration to the world.
Sources
The Forces behind the Murder of Berta Caceres
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/drugs-dams-and-power-the-murder-of-honduran-activist-berta-caceres/
Wave of Assassinations of Activists in Colombia
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/wave-of-right-wing-violence-threatens-peace-for-colombia/
New Details in the Assassination of Hugo Chavez
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/the-murder-of-chavez-the-cia-and-dea-cover-their-tracks/
An analysis of Colombia's Dirty War by James Petras
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2015/09/01/colombias-killing-fields-peace-is-war/
50 Years of War in Colombia 220,000 Killed
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/plan-colombia-and-us-backed-death-squads/
The Latest Insumision
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/insumision-victories-dont-slow-the-struggle/
The El Enemigo Comun Site
http://elenemigocomun.net
Eric Draitser has started a great series on the War on The BRICS the first one is on Brazil
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/brics-under-attack-the-empire-strikes-back-in-brazil/
Pepe Escobar on the soft coup attempt in Brazil
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/23/brazils-revolution-starting-to-reveal-its-true-colors/
Repression continues in Honduras
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/honduras-interview-with-rafael-alegria-mp-and-leader-of-via-campesina/
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Alternative Media Spotlight 3
Alternative Media Spotlight 3
It's time for a long overdue installment of Alternative media spotlight a guide to some of the sites you should be following.
Andre Vltchek is one of the greatest writers to use his work to battle imperialism. He is also a courageous journalist who constantly travels the world risking his life in dangerous war zones in order to bring the empires crimes to light. From DRCongo to Syria, Lebanon, Ukraine, Iraq He is constantly on the move bringing the horrors and misery of the world to light. His work also exposes the cultural sterility, greed and misery capitalism brings both to the west and to those trapped in it's neo-colonial grip like South Korea and Indonesia. He also brings tales of hope from people all over the planet resisting imperialism in places like Venezuela, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, China, and Iran. He's a film maker, a novelist, a philosopher, an investigative journalist in other words a genius. His work is published around the internet so I suggest you follow his website which is packed with articles, interviews, and his beautiful photographs. He is also a prolific author his latest book is "Exposing the Lies of Empire."
http://andrevltchek.weebly.com
The Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution provides one of the few rays of hope in this dark time of endless war and unfettered capitalism. It has been under threat since the moment Hugo Chavez took power indeed long before as officially hundreds and probably thousands were killed by prior governments which assassinated revolutionaries and brutally suppressed the 1989 Caracazo uprising in a futile attempt to maintain the status qou. However not since the failed coup against Chavez has the Bolivarian revolution been under such threat. Indeed all of latin America is in deadly danger of a return to neo-liberal fascism of the sort that has killed hundreds of thousands throughout the continent. Thus it is vital that everyone keep a close eye on events in Venezuela where the opposition have gained a majority in the national assembly. The definitive english language site on Venezuela is Venezuelanalysis. It contains news, analysis, and translations from a wide variety of perspectives sympathetic to the Bolivarian Revolution.
http://venezuelanalysis.com
Eva Bartlett is one of my heroes. She did not begin as a journalist but as an activist. She went to Palestine to discover the truth about the Israeli occupation herself and was so shocked by the brutal reality that she became a journalist in order to help bring this reality to the worlds attention. Her work hoped to allow Palestinians to explain the outside world what it is like to live in a constant state of siege. Heart breaking stories of everyday tragedy fisherman, farmers, children under constant attack. Eventually the Zionist Entity as she prefers to call it banned her from returning. She next decided to discover for herself what was actually going on in Syria. Currently most of her work is focused on covering the war on Syria. She brings the war as Syrians see and experience it a heartbreaking and inspiring story. Sadly I was late to discover her work but from the moment I read her account of the hellish siege of Fou and Karfaya I became a loyal reader. She also does excellent interviews and lectures. And she has just begun writing a book on Syria that will provide an Oral History of the war by Syrians themselves that I'm extremely excited for. She also compiles excellent articles debunking the mainstream narrative on Syria compiling the work of others who have done excellent work on Syria like Sharmine Narwani, Tim Anderson, Corey Morningstar and Vanessa Beeley. Her site is called In Gaza.
https://ingaza.wordpress.com
And she recently set up a page where you can find an archive of all her work on Syria
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/my-published-articles-and-other-musings-from-and-on-syria-20142015/
Spread this article everywhere!
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/deconstructing-the-nato-narrative-on-syria/
Sukant Chandan is an inspiration he has been battling imperialism and battling for the rights of immigrants for 20 years. Freeing ones mind from imperialist conditioning is the first step towards liberation and Sukant Chandan with his daring and creativity is always in the vanguard of this struggle. He seeks to unite all the people's of the third and fourth worlds against imperialism. The fourth world are the third world peoples who live in the the so called 1st world. He constantly tries to teach people that all our struggles are interconnected. Who else would think to connect Ferguson and North Korea, Malcolm X with Ho Chi Minh, The Easter uprising and the Mao's revolution. I first discovered his work during NATO's war on Libya. Sukant was one of the few who dared to challenge the lies and expose this so called "revolution" as being composed of Al Qaeda death squads. He actually travelled to Libya during NATO's war to expose the truth. Later I rediscovered his work thru his Tri-Continental Congress You Tube Channel which put on fascinating conferences with other great anti-imperialists like Hafsa Kara, Carlos Martinez, Asari Sobukwe, and Minka Adofu. Great presentations on topics like Libya, and Venezuela. Then as if that wasn't enough he also launched the Malcolm X Movement which put on even more great events. He has helped expose me to radical scholars like Hakim Adi, Dan Glazebrook and Marika Sherwood. He also makes frequent appearances on RT and Press TV where he has been known to utterly demolish his opponents in Debates. He also writes great Anti-Imperialist articles. Unfortunately I don't know how to post links to you tube channels so You'll have to search his 3 channels for yourself. They are sons of Malcolm Tv, Tri-Continental, and Malcolm X Movement. His Blog is Sons Of Malcolm
http://sonsofmalcolm.blogspot.com
Here is a presentation on Libya from the Tri Continental
http://youtu.be/zKQJWXcBMhI
Next up I recommend you check out my friend @arrghshell 's blog / Podcast. Although her podcast is still relatively new she started off with a bang by doing an explosive expose on the role of the military in the sex trafficking industry. Some people have begun to talk about the empire of bases the US military have built around the planet. @arrghshell however exposes a danger few consider. In order to provide "entertainment" Millions of women have been forced into sexual slavery over the decades. Most military bases are closely connected to local organized crime and shocking even to me American Military police are used to hunt down escaped sex workers and return them to their brothels. In addition women from this empire of brothels are then sold into slavery in the united states itself often brought into the country thru sham marriages with american soldiers. In a fascinating connection to my own work on US collaboration with with Fascists even before the end of world war 2 @arrghshell explains how the United States adopted wholesale the infamous system of Japanese "comfort women" the only difference being that the American occupation has never ended and all this continues today and is doubtless mirrored around every military base foreign and domestic. She also writes a fascinating blog always original on Imperialism, Media, politics, alt-media and a bunch of topics. Her Blog/Podcast is called Kariflack
http://n0p3.net
And Here are links to the first 3 episodes on the Military and Sex Trafficking.
http://n0p3.net/2015/08/29/us-military-trade-in-trafficked-persons-and-sexual-servitude-part-1/
http://n0p3.net/2015/09/15/us-military-trade-in-trafficked-persons-and-sexual-servitude-part-2/
http://n0p3.net/2015/10/01/us-military-trade-in-trafficked-persons-and-sexual-servitude-part-3/
Carlos Martinez is another amazing Anti-Imperialist writer and speaker. He writes wonderful articles on the history of revolutionary movements. For example he wrote about the role of revolutionary freedom fighter Chris Hani in the fall of apartheid in South Africa. He wrote wonderful introductions to the work of Assata Shakur, and Huey Newton with long excerpts from their books. He also provides great introductions and excerpts to the thought of Revolutionaries like Samora Michel, Maurice Bishop, and Amilcar Cabral. Other favorites are his inspiring articles on the Vietnam War and the Life of Ho Chi Minh. However he doesn't just attempt to resurrect the revolutionary past he also does excellent work battling imperialism in the present. He writes in defense of Palestine, Syria, Venezuela, North Korea and many other places resisting imperialism. Hugo Chavez Revolutionary Internationalist was one of my favorite pieces praising Chavez's role as an ally of anti-imperialist resistance not just in Latin America but around the world forming alliances with Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria, China, South Africa Russia. He also gives great speeches many of which can be found on Chandan's Tricontinental channel. You can find Martinez's writings at his blog Invent the Future
http://www.invent-the-future.org
Here is his Hugo Chavez article
http://www.invent-the-future.org/2014/07/hugo-chavez-revolutionary-internationalist/
Vanessa Beeley's The Wall Will Fall is another great site for information on the wars in Iraq Syria, Palestine, and Yemen. She has many contacts in these war zones who send her vivid first hand accounts of the wars which she translates and posts on her websites providing a fascination and horrifying picture of what these wars are really like. I'll never forget the description of the looting of Aleppo for instance. She also does excellent journalistic work both on these wars and on the "humanitarian" NGO's that produce a steady stream of propaganda. For example she wrote a great expose on the "White Helmets" who masquerade as rescue workers while working to provide propaganda for the terrorist death squads who are ravaging the country. Check out her blog for a wealth of information on the wars in the middle east.
https://thewallwillfall.wordpress.com
There are more great sites I should discuss but unfortunately they will have to wait for the next Alternative Media Spotlight. Here are the two previous ones
http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/02/alternative-media-spotlight.html
http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/06/alternative-media-spotlight-2.html
Thanks to @RedKahina for the suggestion follow her brilliant work on twitter about Imperialism, Culture and Media. The specter haunting twitter. The intellectual surgeon. She'll explain whose work not to follow.
It's time for a long overdue installment of Alternative media spotlight a guide to some of the sites you should be following.
Andre Vltchek is one of the greatest writers to use his work to battle imperialism. He is also a courageous journalist who constantly travels the world risking his life in dangerous war zones in order to bring the empires crimes to light. From DRCongo to Syria, Lebanon, Ukraine, Iraq He is constantly on the move bringing the horrors and misery of the world to light. His work also exposes the cultural sterility, greed and misery capitalism brings both to the west and to those trapped in it's neo-colonial grip like South Korea and Indonesia. He also brings tales of hope from people all over the planet resisting imperialism in places like Venezuela, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, China, and Iran. He's a film maker, a novelist, a philosopher, an investigative journalist in other words a genius. His work is published around the internet so I suggest you follow his website which is packed with articles, interviews, and his beautiful photographs. He is also a prolific author his latest book is "Exposing the Lies of Empire."
http://andrevltchek.weebly.com
The Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution provides one of the few rays of hope in this dark time of endless war and unfettered capitalism. It has been under threat since the moment Hugo Chavez took power indeed long before as officially hundreds and probably thousands were killed by prior governments which assassinated revolutionaries and brutally suppressed the 1989 Caracazo uprising in a futile attempt to maintain the status qou. However not since the failed coup against Chavez has the Bolivarian revolution been under such threat. Indeed all of latin America is in deadly danger of a return to neo-liberal fascism of the sort that has killed hundreds of thousands throughout the continent. Thus it is vital that everyone keep a close eye on events in Venezuela where the opposition have gained a majority in the national assembly. The definitive english language site on Venezuela is Venezuelanalysis. It contains news, analysis, and translations from a wide variety of perspectives sympathetic to the Bolivarian Revolution.
http://venezuelanalysis.com
Eva Bartlett is one of my heroes. She did not begin as a journalist but as an activist. She went to Palestine to discover the truth about the Israeli occupation herself and was so shocked by the brutal reality that she became a journalist in order to help bring this reality to the worlds attention. Her work hoped to allow Palestinians to explain the outside world what it is like to live in a constant state of siege. Heart breaking stories of everyday tragedy fisherman, farmers, children under constant attack. Eventually the Zionist Entity as she prefers to call it banned her from returning. She next decided to discover for herself what was actually going on in Syria. Currently most of her work is focused on covering the war on Syria. She brings the war as Syrians see and experience it a heartbreaking and inspiring story. Sadly I was late to discover her work but from the moment I read her account of the hellish siege of Fou and Karfaya I became a loyal reader. She also does excellent interviews and lectures. And she has just begun writing a book on Syria that will provide an Oral History of the war by Syrians themselves that I'm extremely excited for. She also compiles excellent articles debunking the mainstream narrative on Syria compiling the work of others who have done excellent work on Syria like Sharmine Narwani, Tim Anderson, Corey Morningstar and Vanessa Beeley. Her site is called In Gaza.
https://ingaza.wordpress.com
And she recently set up a page where you can find an archive of all her work on Syria
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/my-published-articles-and-other-musings-from-and-on-syria-20142015/
Spread this article everywhere!
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/deconstructing-the-nato-narrative-on-syria/
Sukant Chandan is an inspiration he has been battling imperialism and battling for the rights of immigrants for 20 years. Freeing ones mind from imperialist conditioning is the first step towards liberation and Sukant Chandan with his daring and creativity is always in the vanguard of this struggle. He seeks to unite all the people's of the third and fourth worlds against imperialism. The fourth world are the third world peoples who live in the the so called 1st world. He constantly tries to teach people that all our struggles are interconnected. Who else would think to connect Ferguson and North Korea, Malcolm X with Ho Chi Minh, The Easter uprising and the Mao's revolution. I first discovered his work during NATO's war on Libya. Sukant was one of the few who dared to challenge the lies and expose this so called "revolution" as being composed of Al Qaeda death squads. He actually travelled to Libya during NATO's war to expose the truth. Later I rediscovered his work thru his Tri-Continental Congress You Tube Channel which put on fascinating conferences with other great anti-imperialists like Hafsa Kara, Carlos Martinez, Asari Sobukwe, and Minka Adofu. Great presentations on topics like Libya, and Venezuela. Then as if that wasn't enough he also launched the Malcolm X Movement which put on even more great events. He has helped expose me to radical scholars like Hakim Adi, Dan Glazebrook and Marika Sherwood. He also makes frequent appearances on RT and Press TV where he has been known to utterly demolish his opponents in Debates. He also writes great Anti-Imperialist articles. Unfortunately I don't know how to post links to you tube channels so You'll have to search his 3 channels for yourself. They are sons of Malcolm Tv, Tri-Continental, and Malcolm X Movement. His Blog is Sons Of Malcolm
http://sonsofmalcolm.blogspot.com
Here is a presentation on Libya from the Tri Continental
http://youtu.be/zKQJWXcBMhI
Next up I recommend you check out my friend @arrghshell 's blog / Podcast. Although her podcast is still relatively new she started off with a bang by doing an explosive expose on the role of the military in the sex trafficking industry. Some people have begun to talk about the empire of bases the US military have built around the planet. @arrghshell however exposes a danger few consider. In order to provide "entertainment" Millions of women have been forced into sexual slavery over the decades. Most military bases are closely connected to local organized crime and shocking even to me American Military police are used to hunt down escaped sex workers and return them to their brothels. In addition women from this empire of brothels are then sold into slavery in the united states itself often brought into the country thru sham marriages with american soldiers. In a fascinating connection to my own work on US collaboration with with Fascists even before the end of world war 2 @arrghshell explains how the United States adopted wholesale the infamous system of Japanese "comfort women" the only difference being that the American occupation has never ended and all this continues today and is doubtless mirrored around every military base foreign and domestic. She also writes a fascinating blog always original on Imperialism, Media, politics, alt-media and a bunch of topics. Her Blog/Podcast is called Kariflack
http://n0p3.net
And Here are links to the first 3 episodes on the Military and Sex Trafficking.
http://n0p3.net/2015/08/29/us-military-trade-in-trafficked-persons-and-sexual-servitude-part-1/
http://n0p3.net/2015/09/15/us-military-trade-in-trafficked-persons-and-sexual-servitude-part-2/
http://n0p3.net/2015/10/01/us-military-trade-in-trafficked-persons-and-sexual-servitude-part-3/
Carlos Martinez is another amazing Anti-Imperialist writer and speaker. He writes wonderful articles on the history of revolutionary movements. For example he wrote about the role of revolutionary freedom fighter Chris Hani in the fall of apartheid in South Africa. He wrote wonderful introductions to the work of Assata Shakur, and Huey Newton with long excerpts from their books. He also provides great introductions and excerpts to the thought of Revolutionaries like Samora Michel, Maurice Bishop, and Amilcar Cabral. Other favorites are his inspiring articles on the Vietnam War and the Life of Ho Chi Minh. However he doesn't just attempt to resurrect the revolutionary past he also does excellent work battling imperialism in the present. He writes in defense of Palestine, Syria, Venezuela, North Korea and many other places resisting imperialism. Hugo Chavez Revolutionary Internationalist was one of my favorite pieces praising Chavez's role as an ally of anti-imperialist resistance not just in Latin America but around the world forming alliances with Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria, China, South Africa Russia. He also gives great speeches many of which can be found on Chandan's Tricontinental channel. You can find Martinez's writings at his blog Invent the Future
http://www.invent-the-future.org
Here is his Hugo Chavez article
http://www.invent-the-future.org/2014/07/hugo-chavez-revolutionary-internationalist/
Vanessa Beeley's The Wall Will Fall is another great site for information on the wars in Iraq Syria, Palestine, and Yemen. She has many contacts in these war zones who send her vivid first hand accounts of the wars which she translates and posts on her websites providing a fascination and horrifying picture of what these wars are really like. I'll never forget the description of the looting of Aleppo for instance. She also does excellent journalistic work both on these wars and on the "humanitarian" NGO's that produce a steady stream of propaganda. For example she wrote a great expose on the "White Helmets" who masquerade as rescue workers while working to provide propaganda for the terrorist death squads who are ravaging the country. Check out her blog for a wealth of information on the wars in the middle east.
https://thewallwillfall.wordpress.com
There are more great sites I should discuss but unfortunately they will have to wait for the next Alternative Media Spotlight. Here are the two previous ones
http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/02/alternative-media-spotlight.html
http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2014/06/alternative-media-spotlight-2.html
Thanks to @RedKahina for the suggestion follow her brilliant work on twitter about Imperialism, Culture and Media. The specter haunting twitter. The intellectual surgeon. She'll explain whose work not to follow.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
"Ceasefire" in Syria ?
The War in Syria Continues Despite "Ceasefire"
With the aid of it's allies Syria continues to make dramatic advances on the battlefield while the terrorist death squads are in a panic. The shift has become so dramatic that even in Washington perpetually disconnected from reality they began to realize that they have lost this war. Of course the Empire of Chaos has already shown that it will never actually give up it's efforts to destroy Syria an important front in it's endless war on the planet. For the moment however it has decided against backing the plans of Turkey and Saudi Arabia to invade Syria which would probably have resulted in a humiliating defeat. Instead they have accepted Russia's face saving offer of a "ceasefire." I was initially shocked by the news fearing a repeat of 2014's Minsk Agreement which stopped the NAF (Novorossiyan Armed Forces) from exploiting their hard fought victory over the Ukrainian forces by liberating any more territories from the fascist Kiev Junta. However those fears proved groundless as this "ceasefire" excludes al Nusra and ISIS allowing the Syrian Arab Army to continue their efforts to liberate the country from terrorist death squads. Instead this "ceasefire" is intended to be the initial stage of surrender for some of the smaller groups of terrorist death squads. It is mean to neutralize some groups while allowing the Syrian Arab Army to concentrate on destroying other groups. Of course it is only the first stage and so long as the Axis of Chaos (US-NATO-GCC-Israel) continues to flood the terrorists with weapons and supplies the war will never actually end. In addition the Empire of Chaos will doubtless use the ceasefire to regroup their forces and plan to smuggle in vast amounts of weapons to the death squads. However Russia, Syria, and the rest of the 4 + 1 (Iran, Iraq, and Hezbollah) are well aware of the treacherous intentions of the Axis of Chaos and will keep guard against such schemes. The tide of the war has already decisively turned the death squads desperate recent counter offensives have again ended in disaster. Turkey continues to shell Syrian territory but doesn't dare to invade. The "Ceasefire" will not alter the direction of the war. The SAA continue house by house, village by village to liberate their country.
First the "Ceasefire" the ominously named Munich agreement. It basically boils down to an agreement with 97 groups (the number is constantly changing) They agree to stop fighting and in exchange Russia agrees not to bomb them. A system has been set up where the Russians and Americans have set up separate headquarters with hotlines to monitor the ceasefire. The Russians are based in Hmeimim Syria since unlike the Empire of Chaos they are there at the invitation of the Syrian Government. The Americans are based in Jordan one of their major terrorist launching pads into Syria as Sibel Edmonds revealed a year before anyone else. Jordan created as a British puppet state has somehow managed to escaped the infamy of it's allies the Saudi's and Turks as sponsors of terrorist death squads. An amusing part of the ceasefire agreement is that it exposes this Jordanian role but even more so that of the United States as the prime backer of these death squads. It likes to blame it's friends for the endless atrocities of the terrorist death squads and is now officially responsible for their good behavior. For now Russia and Syria are turning a blind eye to the many ceasefire violations 7 on the first day, 15 on the second, 21 on the the third. (Syria 360 Publishes a daily report) For after 5 years of war the people in Syria are doubtless happy to experience even relative calm. It also allows supplies to enter long besieged towns and helps spare the lives of civilians trapped in terrorist occupied areas. And after 4 months of heavy losses even some of the death squads are relieved and in fact they are surrendering in increasing numbers. 1,200 agreed to lay down their arms in Hama a couple days ago for example. Others have decided to switch sides and fight their former allies. In the chaotic war the death squads have often battled each other for the right to loot Syria and Syrian and Russian intelligence doubtless have plans to use the ceasefire to infiltrate and manipulate the death squads against one another. The recent string of successful assassinations of top death squad commanders demonstrates they are already having some success in placing spies and buying traitors within the death squads. This has the added bonus of inducing paranoia in the terrorists ranks as they begin to execute each other on suspicion of treachery. The ceasefire will help to neutralize some groups, subvert others, while freeing the SAA up for it's planned offensive to liberate the eastern half of the country from ISIS. Meanwhile it's current string of victories in Latakia and in Aleppo will cut off the flow of supplies to the death squads meaning that the terrorists will be in a much weaker position when the ceasefire eventually collapses. Clearly the ceasefire not only marks a major victory in the Syrian war it also offers many opportunities to spread demoralization and confusion in the ranks of the NATO death squads.
Despite or perhaps because of the announcement that the "Ceasefire" was soon to come into effect the terrorists launched major counter offensives. They launched yet another failed attempt to seize the Deir Ezzor a government held territory deep in ISIS controlled eastern Syria a vital strategic point. The Heroic City and airabase of Deir Ezzor so long as it survives foils the long held schemes to break off the lightly populated but oil rich area and join it with a chunk of western Iraq to create a saudi style Al Qaeda state between the two allies. I should mention that Iraq has also been making major gains in forcing ISIS out of it's territory. Obviously one of the most important details of the "Ceasefire" is that it allows the war on ISIS and Al Nusra to continue hopefully the SAA and it's allies in the air Russia, and on the ground Russian and Iranian advisers along with the legendary Hezbollah, and the feared Iraqi Militias will be able to liberate the entire eastern half of the country, before the US can try to recognize any future "wahabistan". Thankfully even the outrageous liars in corporate media would have trouble selling the idea of ISIS as moderate rebels after spending years hyping them up as a major threat to justify their launching of a third Iraq war and an expanded war on Syria back in the fall of 2014. Yet that fact hasn't stopped them from stubbornly refusing to abandon these plans to break up Syria. Instead it is the heroic defenders of Deir Ezzor who have withstood years of siege and attacks to maintain a presence in the area. Recently they sent hundreds of ISIS terrorists to their graves as they smashed yet another major attack. I look forward to the day when the siege of Deir Ezzor is finally lifted after the SAA liberate the territory that separates them.
The SAA also foiled a major counter-attack meant to slow their offensive in Aleppo province. The terrorists siezed the strategic town of Khanaasir temporarily cutting off the road to Aleppo slowing the progress in evicting the terrorists who have been laying siege to the city for years. Luckily the terrorists achieved only a temporary victory and the SAA and it's allies managed to retake the town killing hundreds of terrorists in the process. As South Front recently revealed while the worlds attention was focused on the Russian airstrikes Russian advisers were secretly providing valuable assistance in rearming and retraining the Syrian Arab Army. Thus this counter offensive was smashed by the SAA with much greater ease then the counter-offensives last fall that also seized strategically important roads but which took longer to evict. Thus their earlier counter offensives stalled things for weeks while this latest attempt was foiled in mere days. The terrorists were caught between two SAA pincer movements and were slaughtered by Syrian Special forces who ambushed them as they attempted to flee. This is a major sign that the tide has irrevocably turned in this war. Of course the axis of chaos continues to pour men and weapons into the country but the SAA is getting more effective with every passing day.
With their series of defeats on the battle field the death squads cowardly response has been to step up their terror attacks on civilians a long series of car bombings continue to take a heavy toll in civilian lives. Sadly Syria has been a victim of these attacks for so long that what would be front page news if it happened anywhere else is quickly forgotten when it happens in Syria. In any case hundreds of Syrian civilians were killed in senseless bombing attacks no doubt ordered, by the Empire of Chaos and it's allies in a spiteful revenge for the terrorists losses. Turkey is also launching attacks in it's impotent rage over the defeat of it's terrorist proxies and of course their covert forces disguised as terrorist proxies. It has been shelling Syria from across the border harassing the YPG/SDF with Russian air support and weapons from their Syrian allies have been attempting to close the border into Aleppo. The Kurds have stubbornly continued to advance despite the shelling. Maybe that's why the turks escalated towards nearly killing 30 foreign journalists covering the conflict who of course caught the whole thing on video tape. According to Pepe Escobar the US saved the turks and the saudis from themselves by forbidding an invasion. This must be why the turks are starting to go a bit crazy. An amusing detail according to Syrian Perspective a bunch of Saudi generals wrote in to their mad king begging him not to launch an invasion of Syria given that they were already losing badly in Yemen. Rumor has it Turkey's generals also had to explain to Erdogan the Sultan of Chaos why an invasion would be disastrous in the face of overwhelming Russian air superiority. This whole episode has exposed yet again why NATO must be disbanded before it plunges the world into disaster one crazed NATO member could easily drag the world into a nuclear war. Especially as Washington insists on installing fanatical anti-Russian governments throughout eastern Europe some with openly fascist sympathies.
Thus despite the ceasefire the war will continue. The SAA is on the offensive throughout the country. Once Aleppo is liberated they will begin the offensive on Raqqah. They are also preparing to liberate the ancient city of Palmyra once home to Queen Zenobia during roman times. Although Turkey and Saudi Arabia have not been allowed to invade they will continue to try to desperately flood the country with weapons and terrorists. Meanwhile the Empire of Chaos will continue to plot some new strategy to keep the war going. However there is every reason to believe that these plans will end in humiliating defeat. Thanks to the tremendous courage of the SAA, Hezbollah, Iranians and the Iraqi Militias, and thanks to the timely intervention of Russia the course of the war has irrevocably changed. There is good reason to hope that the death squads will in the end be forced to flee, surrender or die. Long Live Syria!
Sources
I recently read two great books that are extremely valuable for understanding both the Warbin Syria and America's Imperial strategy. First the "Globalization of War" By Michel Chossudovsky which analyzes americas strategy of endless war as well as providing great short exposes on the past 15 years of wars From Yugoslavia to Syria. Plus an interview with Fidel Castro! Second there is "Divide and Ruin: The West's Imperial Strategy" by Dan Glazebrook a collection of articles which provides a brilliant analysis of why the west is attempting to create failed states and why there is a seemingly endless economic crisis.
A Heartbreaking Report from Eva Bartlett on one of the latest victims of the years long siege of Foua and Kafarya a 10 year old Child
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/remembering-ten-year-old-najeb-shot-dead-by-western-backed-terrorists/
The Latest report on the Ceasefire and the military situation from Syria 360
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/syrian-front-21ceasefire-violations-in-the-last-24-hours/
The Russian Defense Ministry explains the Ceasefire
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2016/02/27/russian-defence-ministry-briefing-on-ceasefire-process/
Syrian Perspective on the recapture of Khannassir A great site on the Syrian War they provide a detailed and entertaining day to account of the war
http://syrianperspective.com/2016/02/aleppo-the-road-to-khanaassir-is-open-again-major-victory-for-syria-army-latakia-its-almost-over-syrian-army-liberates-more-towns-at-turk-border.html
Syrian Perspective on the Scared Saudi Generals
http://syrianperspective.com/2016/02/dayr-el-zor-2-suicide-truck-drivers-up-in-flames-as-syrian-army-racks-up-string-of-triumphs-crushing-isis-and-obamas-treachery-syrper-exclusive-saudi-generals-warn-regime-in-riyaadh-not-to.html
A South Front Video on Russian advisers I advise you to subscribe to their you tube channel as they provide valuable short video reports on Syria vital for understanding the geography of the war. An animated map is worth a thousand words
http://youtu.be/Z9vfX_R8MTI
And a great interview with Tim Anderson on the origins of the war in Syria and the dangerous propaganda campaign that masquerades as news on the war.
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2016/02/14/the-dirty-war-on-syria-interview-with-professor-tim-anderson-radio/
And an Interview with Eva Bartlett on the war in Syria and the Doxxing of the brilliant Emma Quangel by hipster imperialist Molly Crabapple
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/porkins-policy-radio-ep-46-the-truth-about-syria-with-eva-bartlett-interview/
With the aid of it's allies Syria continues to make dramatic advances on the battlefield while the terrorist death squads are in a panic. The shift has become so dramatic that even in Washington perpetually disconnected from reality they began to realize that they have lost this war. Of course the Empire of Chaos has already shown that it will never actually give up it's efforts to destroy Syria an important front in it's endless war on the planet. For the moment however it has decided against backing the plans of Turkey and Saudi Arabia to invade Syria which would probably have resulted in a humiliating defeat. Instead they have accepted Russia's face saving offer of a "ceasefire." I was initially shocked by the news fearing a repeat of 2014's Minsk Agreement which stopped the NAF (Novorossiyan Armed Forces) from exploiting their hard fought victory over the Ukrainian forces by liberating any more territories from the fascist Kiev Junta. However those fears proved groundless as this "ceasefire" excludes al Nusra and ISIS allowing the Syrian Arab Army to continue their efforts to liberate the country from terrorist death squads. Instead this "ceasefire" is intended to be the initial stage of surrender for some of the smaller groups of terrorist death squads. It is mean to neutralize some groups while allowing the Syrian Arab Army to concentrate on destroying other groups. Of course it is only the first stage and so long as the Axis of Chaos (US-NATO-GCC-Israel) continues to flood the terrorists with weapons and supplies the war will never actually end. In addition the Empire of Chaos will doubtless use the ceasefire to regroup their forces and plan to smuggle in vast amounts of weapons to the death squads. However Russia, Syria, and the rest of the 4 + 1 (Iran, Iraq, and Hezbollah) are well aware of the treacherous intentions of the Axis of Chaos and will keep guard against such schemes. The tide of the war has already decisively turned the death squads desperate recent counter offensives have again ended in disaster. Turkey continues to shell Syrian territory but doesn't dare to invade. The "Ceasefire" will not alter the direction of the war. The SAA continue house by house, village by village to liberate their country.
First the "Ceasefire" the ominously named Munich agreement. It basically boils down to an agreement with 97 groups (the number is constantly changing) They agree to stop fighting and in exchange Russia agrees not to bomb them. A system has been set up where the Russians and Americans have set up separate headquarters with hotlines to monitor the ceasefire. The Russians are based in Hmeimim Syria since unlike the Empire of Chaos they are there at the invitation of the Syrian Government. The Americans are based in Jordan one of their major terrorist launching pads into Syria as Sibel Edmonds revealed a year before anyone else. Jordan created as a British puppet state has somehow managed to escaped the infamy of it's allies the Saudi's and Turks as sponsors of terrorist death squads. An amusing part of the ceasefire agreement is that it exposes this Jordanian role but even more so that of the United States as the prime backer of these death squads. It likes to blame it's friends for the endless atrocities of the terrorist death squads and is now officially responsible for their good behavior. For now Russia and Syria are turning a blind eye to the many ceasefire violations 7 on the first day, 15 on the second, 21 on the the third. (Syria 360 Publishes a daily report) For after 5 years of war the people in Syria are doubtless happy to experience even relative calm. It also allows supplies to enter long besieged towns and helps spare the lives of civilians trapped in terrorist occupied areas. And after 4 months of heavy losses even some of the death squads are relieved and in fact they are surrendering in increasing numbers. 1,200 agreed to lay down their arms in Hama a couple days ago for example. Others have decided to switch sides and fight their former allies. In the chaotic war the death squads have often battled each other for the right to loot Syria and Syrian and Russian intelligence doubtless have plans to use the ceasefire to infiltrate and manipulate the death squads against one another. The recent string of successful assassinations of top death squad commanders demonstrates they are already having some success in placing spies and buying traitors within the death squads. This has the added bonus of inducing paranoia in the terrorists ranks as they begin to execute each other on suspicion of treachery. The ceasefire will help to neutralize some groups, subvert others, while freeing the SAA up for it's planned offensive to liberate the eastern half of the country from ISIS. Meanwhile it's current string of victories in Latakia and in Aleppo will cut off the flow of supplies to the death squads meaning that the terrorists will be in a much weaker position when the ceasefire eventually collapses. Clearly the ceasefire not only marks a major victory in the Syrian war it also offers many opportunities to spread demoralization and confusion in the ranks of the NATO death squads.
Despite or perhaps because of the announcement that the "Ceasefire" was soon to come into effect the terrorists launched major counter offensives. They launched yet another failed attempt to seize the Deir Ezzor a government held territory deep in ISIS controlled eastern Syria a vital strategic point. The Heroic City and airabase of Deir Ezzor so long as it survives foils the long held schemes to break off the lightly populated but oil rich area and join it with a chunk of western Iraq to create a saudi style Al Qaeda state between the two allies. I should mention that Iraq has also been making major gains in forcing ISIS out of it's territory. Obviously one of the most important details of the "Ceasefire" is that it allows the war on ISIS and Al Nusra to continue hopefully the SAA and it's allies in the air Russia, and on the ground Russian and Iranian advisers along with the legendary Hezbollah, and the feared Iraqi Militias will be able to liberate the entire eastern half of the country, before the US can try to recognize any future "wahabistan". Thankfully even the outrageous liars in corporate media would have trouble selling the idea of ISIS as moderate rebels after spending years hyping them up as a major threat to justify their launching of a third Iraq war and an expanded war on Syria back in the fall of 2014. Yet that fact hasn't stopped them from stubbornly refusing to abandon these plans to break up Syria. Instead it is the heroic defenders of Deir Ezzor who have withstood years of siege and attacks to maintain a presence in the area. Recently they sent hundreds of ISIS terrorists to their graves as they smashed yet another major attack. I look forward to the day when the siege of Deir Ezzor is finally lifted after the SAA liberate the territory that separates them.
The SAA also foiled a major counter-attack meant to slow their offensive in Aleppo province. The terrorists siezed the strategic town of Khanaasir temporarily cutting off the road to Aleppo slowing the progress in evicting the terrorists who have been laying siege to the city for years. Luckily the terrorists achieved only a temporary victory and the SAA and it's allies managed to retake the town killing hundreds of terrorists in the process. As South Front recently revealed while the worlds attention was focused on the Russian airstrikes Russian advisers were secretly providing valuable assistance in rearming and retraining the Syrian Arab Army. Thus this counter offensive was smashed by the SAA with much greater ease then the counter-offensives last fall that also seized strategically important roads but which took longer to evict. Thus their earlier counter offensives stalled things for weeks while this latest attempt was foiled in mere days. The terrorists were caught between two SAA pincer movements and were slaughtered by Syrian Special forces who ambushed them as they attempted to flee. This is a major sign that the tide has irrevocably turned in this war. Of course the axis of chaos continues to pour men and weapons into the country but the SAA is getting more effective with every passing day.
With their series of defeats on the battle field the death squads cowardly response has been to step up their terror attacks on civilians a long series of car bombings continue to take a heavy toll in civilian lives. Sadly Syria has been a victim of these attacks for so long that what would be front page news if it happened anywhere else is quickly forgotten when it happens in Syria. In any case hundreds of Syrian civilians were killed in senseless bombing attacks no doubt ordered, by the Empire of Chaos and it's allies in a spiteful revenge for the terrorists losses. Turkey is also launching attacks in it's impotent rage over the defeat of it's terrorist proxies and of course their covert forces disguised as terrorist proxies. It has been shelling Syria from across the border harassing the YPG/SDF with Russian air support and weapons from their Syrian allies have been attempting to close the border into Aleppo. The Kurds have stubbornly continued to advance despite the shelling. Maybe that's why the turks escalated towards nearly killing 30 foreign journalists covering the conflict who of course caught the whole thing on video tape. According to Pepe Escobar the US saved the turks and the saudis from themselves by forbidding an invasion. This must be why the turks are starting to go a bit crazy. An amusing detail according to Syrian Perspective a bunch of Saudi generals wrote in to their mad king begging him not to launch an invasion of Syria given that they were already losing badly in Yemen. Rumor has it Turkey's generals also had to explain to Erdogan the Sultan of Chaos why an invasion would be disastrous in the face of overwhelming Russian air superiority. This whole episode has exposed yet again why NATO must be disbanded before it plunges the world into disaster one crazed NATO member could easily drag the world into a nuclear war. Especially as Washington insists on installing fanatical anti-Russian governments throughout eastern Europe some with openly fascist sympathies.
Thus despite the ceasefire the war will continue. The SAA is on the offensive throughout the country. Once Aleppo is liberated they will begin the offensive on Raqqah. They are also preparing to liberate the ancient city of Palmyra once home to Queen Zenobia during roman times. Although Turkey and Saudi Arabia have not been allowed to invade they will continue to try to desperately flood the country with weapons and terrorists. Meanwhile the Empire of Chaos will continue to plot some new strategy to keep the war going. However there is every reason to believe that these plans will end in humiliating defeat. Thanks to the tremendous courage of the SAA, Hezbollah, Iranians and the Iraqi Militias, and thanks to the timely intervention of Russia the course of the war has irrevocably changed. There is good reason to hope that the death squads will in the end be forced to flee, surrender or die. Long Live Syria!
Sources
I recently read two great books that are extremely valuable for understanding both the Warbin Syria and America's Imperial strategy. First the "Globalization of War" By Michel Chossudovsky which analyzes americas strategy of endless war as well as providing great short exposes on the past 15 years of wars From Yugoslavia to Syria. Plus an interview with Fidel Castro! Second there is "Divide and Ruin: The West's Imperial Strategy" by Dan Glazebrook a collection of articles which provides a brilliant analysis of why the west is attempting to create failed states and why there is a seemingly endless economic crisis.
A Heartbreaking Report from Eva Bartlett on one of the latest victims of the years long siege of Foua and Kafarya a 10 year old Child
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/remembering-ten-year-old-najeb-shot-dead-by-western-backed-terrorists/
The Latest report on the Ceasefire and the military situation from Syria 360
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/syrian-front-21ceasefire-violations-in-the-last-24-hours/
The Russian Defense Ministry explains the Ceasefire
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2016/02/27/russian-defence-ministry-briefing-on-ceasefire-process/
Syrian Perspective on the recapture of Khannassir A great site on the Syrian War they provide a detailed and entertaining day to account of the war
http://syrianperspective.com/2016/02/aleppo-the-road-to-khanaassir-is-open-again-major-victory-for-syria-army-latakia-its-almost-over-syrian-army-liberates-more-towns-at-turk-border.html
Syrian Perspective on the Scared Saudi Generals
http://syrianperspective.com/2016/02/dayr-el-zor-2-suicide-truck-drivers-up-in-flames-as-syrian-army-racks-up-string-of-triumphs-crushing-isis-and-obamas-treachery-syrper-exclusive-saudi-generals-warn-regime-in-riyaadh-not-to.html
A South Front Video on Russian advisers I advise you to subscribe to their you tube channel as they provide valuable short video reports on Syria vital for understanding the geography of the war. An animated map is worth a thousand words
http://youtu.be/Z9vfX_R8MTI
And a great interview with Tim Anderson on the origins of the war in Syria and the dangerous propaganda campaign that masquerades as news on the war.
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2016/02/14/the-dirty-war-on-syria-interview-with-professor-tim-anderson-radio/
And an Interview with Eva Bartlett on the war in Syria and the Doxxing of the brilliant Emma Quangel by hipster imperialist Molly Crabapple
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/porkins-policy-radio-ep-46-the-truth-about-syria-with-eva-bartlett-interview/
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