Military to Military US Intelligence Sharing in the Syrian War

By Seymour M. Hersh

December 21, 2015 "Information Clearing House" - "LRB" - Barack Obama’s repeated insistence that Bashar al-Assad must leave office – and that there are ‘moderate’ rebel groups in Syria capable of defeating him – has in recent years provoked quiet dissent, and even overt opposition, among some of the most senior officers on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff. Their criticism has focused on what they see as the administration’s fixation on Assad’s primary ally, Vladimir Putin. In their view, Obama is captive to Cold War thinking about Russia and China, and hasn’t adjusted his stance on Syria to the fact both countries share Washington’s anxiety about the spread of terrorism in and beyond Syria; like Washington, they believe that Islamic State must be stopped.

The ultimate explanation of the Syrian conflict... NOT!

President Assad (who is bad) is a nasty guy who got so nasty his people rebelled and the rebels (who are good) started winning.

But then some of the rebels turned a bit nasty and are now called Islamic State (who are definitely bad) and some continued to support democracy (who are still good).

How America created AL Qaeda, ISIS and potential terrorists in ordinary American homes

By Arindam Chaudhuri

Terrorism in Paris shocked you but today's news of a man killing three in Colorado Springs planned parenthood clinic didn't shock you much? Have some patience and read this article till the end and you will believe in my article heading forever and realize why what happened today at Colorado Springs is as shocking an act of terrorism. And more importantly how from Paris to Colorado Springs it's the American Capitalism which has blood in its hands.

You often hear of college shootouts in America and it seems to you 2/3 such happen each year, right? You often hear of some more mass shootings and think that about 12/15 happen every year, right?

Wrong. Make a really wild guess.

ISIS ON THE RUN, RUSSIA-SYRIA CLEAR PALMYRA, HOMS, SET TO STORM RAQQA SOON

SEEMA MUSTAFA. Wednesday, December 9, 2015

NEW DELHI: The Russians are set to finish Daesh “in less than a year” with a major war driving the terrorists out of the safe havens they had occupied in Syria. 

The Syrian Army is just three days away from controlling Aleppo, and has already cleared large parts of Palmyra, and cleared Homs altogether of Daesh elements, according to Syrian Ambassador to India Riad Abbas. The Russian air power has cleared the path for the Syrians to take control of their country again, with the troops on the ground making steady progress as a result. 

Ambassador Abbas who for the first time in the past three years sounded very optimistic told The Citizen, “finally the war is actually against Daesh. The Russians are driving it, as till now everyone but these militants were being killed.” 

Erdogan's leaked phone calls with son Bilal to dispose off money - Transcript

Here is the full transcript, obtained from Turkish outlet Today's Zaman, of the leaked phone call between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tyyip Erdogan and his son Bilal where the Turkish leader allegedly orders his son to dispose of vast amounts of money.

The leaking of the call implicated the Turkish PM in a corruption scandal that has prompted a global outcry.

Erdogan's administration has reacted to the leak, among other leaks, by bannning Twitter and Youtube.

Bashar Al-Assad Interview: “Al Qaeda was Created by the Americans With the Help of Saudi Wahhabi Money”. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar Support ISIS

Damascus, SANA-President Bashar al-Assad gave an interview to Italian TV channel RAI UNO. Below you will find the full transcript of this interview:

Question 1: Mr. President, thanks for the opportunity of talking to you. Let’s start from Paris. How did you react to the news coming from Paris?

President Assad: We can start by saying it’s a horrible crime, and at the same time it’s a sad event when you hear about innocents being killed without any reason and for nothing, and we understand in Syria the meaning of losing a dear member of the family or a dear friend, or anyone you know, in such a horrible crime. We’ve been suffering from that for the past five years. We feel for the French as we feel for the Lebanese a few days before that, and for the Russians regarding the airplane that’s been shot down over Sinai, and for the Yemenis maybe, but does the world, especially the West, feel for those people, or only for the French? Do they feel for the Syrians that have been suffering for five years from the same kind of terrorism? We cannot politicize feeling, feeling is not about the nationality, it’s about the human in general.

Looking ahead to the general election, Clinton takes hawkish stance on Syria

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/looking-ahead-to-the-general-election-clinton-takes-hawkish-stance-on-syria/2015/11/19/fe1d46ae-8edd-11e5-baf4-bdf37355da0c_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-politics%3Ahomepage%2Fcard

NEW YORK — Hillary Clinton laid out a broad agenda Thursday for confronting the Islamic State terrorist network — and sent a larger signal that she intends to be a more aggressive commander in chief than President Obama, under whom she served as secretary of state.

The front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination also portrayed the United States as the leader of a global fight to exterminate the Islamic State and other terrorist threats. She doubled down on her call for a no-fly zone to protect Syrian civilians.

Clinton’s prescriptions — which are hawkish and more specific than either her Democratic or Republican rivals have set out — could raise discomfort in liberal circles and among Americans made wary by the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Her comments suggested that she is looking past her primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), and positioning herself for a general-election battle against whomever the Republican Party puts forward.

She also indicated that hers will be a different brand of leadership than that of Obama, who has been roundly criticized for declaring shortly before last week’s attacks in Paris that the Islamic State had been “contained.”

Clinton, in contrast, said the threat is an urgent one.

As secretary of state, she lost a policy struggle within the Obama administration about whether to intervene by arming and training Syrian rebels in 2011 and 2012, before the group also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL emerged as a potent threat.

“ISIS is demonstrating new ambition, reach and capabilities,” she said in a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations. “Our goal is not to deter or contain ISIS, but to defeat and destroy ISIS.”

“Time is of the essence,” Clinton added.

Recent history teaches that sending a large U.S. ground force “is just not the smart move,” she said, although she described a wider and deeper U.S. military commitment than Obama has yet to mount.

Her repeated calls for the United States to take the global lead marked a change in emphasis.

As recently as Saturday, during a Democratic presidential candidate debate in Des Moines, Clinton had said: “It cannot be an American fight. And I think what the president has consistently said — which I agree with — is that we will support those who take the fight to ISIS. . . . This cannot be an American fight, although American leadership is essential.”

US-Turkey Invasion Derailed by Syrian Army Triumph at Kuweires

By Mike Whitney

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) achieved its greatest victory in the four year-long war on Tuesday when it recaptured the strategic Kuweires military airbase in North Syria. Hundreds of ISIS terrorists were killed in intense fighting while hundreds more were sent fleeing eastward towards Raqqa. The victory was announced just hours after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said in an interview with CNN’s  Christiane Amanpour that Turkey would be willing  to invade Syria as long as Washington agreed to provide air support, create a safe zone along the Syrian-Turkish border, and remove Syrian President Bashar al Assad.