Syria Links for 2/6/12

The March to War against Syria: the long shadow of the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon - Nazamroaya, CRG, 2/5/12
            -Article discusses the history of Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian relations since 2006, and argues that what is now being implemented in Syria was the desired outcome of Israel's failed attack on Lebanon in 2006.  Whereas then a Lebanon with a diminutive Hezbollah was to be used as a springboard to take down Damascus, now Lebanon is being used as one of many basing camps for armed opposition forces to attack government troops and commit terrorism in Syria.


NATO vs. Syria - Philip Giraldi, The American Conservative, 12/19/11
            -Former CIA officer Giraldi reports that NATO forces are building up capabilities in Turkey, which he says is taking the lead as a U.S. proxy.  He writes:

Unmarked NATO warplanes are arriving at Turkish military bases close to Iskenderum on the Syrian border, delivering weapons from the late Muammar Gaddafi’s arsenals as well as volunteers from the Libyan Transitional National Council who are experienced in pitting local volunteers against trained soldiers, a skill they acquired confronting Gaddafi’s army. Iskenderum is also the seat of the Free Syrian Army, the armed wing of the Syrian National Council. French and British special forces trainers are on the ground, assisting the Syrian rebels while the CIA and U.S. Spec Ops are providing communications equipment and intelligence to assist the rebel cause, enabling the fighters to avoid concentrations of Syrian soldiers.

Two weeks later, the British newspaper The Daily Star also reported on the presence of CIA and MI6 officers in Syria, quoting a british security source as saying "MI6 and the CIA are in Syria to infiltrate and get at the truth."  This is compounded by reporting in the same article stating "The NATO-backed flight ban over Syria has been discussed by the British Cabinet’s National Security Council.  And the Ministry of Defence has made provisional plans to implement any government order. The security source revealed military planners are considering the use of Tornado GR4 attack fighters and other aircraft."  The presence of a French and British intelligence presence in Turkey, tasked to assist the opposition, was first reported in late November, in an article in the Turkish newspaper Milliyet 

What is really going on in Syria: an Insider Update - Boris Dolgov, CRG, 2/1/12
           -Dolgov, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Moscow's Institute of Oriental Studies, reports on his two delegation trips to Syria in August 2011 and January 2012.  He reports many of the same developments as the Arab Leagues Monitoring Mission, namely that there is an "armed entity" in Syria which is perpetrating terrorism and attacks on government establishments.  He writes:

 In the last two months Syria has seen a number of terrorist attacks. The terrorist attacked Syrian servicemen and military facilities, law enforcement agencies institutions, blasts on oil pipelines, railroads, murders and taking of hostage among peaceful citizens (In the city of Homs insurgents killed five well known scientists), arson of schools and killing of teachers (since March 2011, 900 schools have been set on fire and 30 teachers have been killed). 

Terrorist attacks in Damascus became one of the bloodiest. Two of them were carried out on December 23, 2011 when cars loaded with explosives went off in front of the buildings of state security service killing 44 and injured about 150 people. On January 6, 2012 on a busy street a suicide bomber attack killed 26 and wounded 60. There were officers of the law enforcement agencies among the victims but most of the victims were occasional by-passers.

Dolgov then goes on to breakdown the various political movements in Syria and their view on the uprising and the government response.