NSA and Israel targeted Lebanese leaders by Wayne Madsen

NSA and Israel targeted Lebanese leaders

by Wayne Madsen
For years the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU), also known as Unit 8200, which is a Third Party partner of the U.S. National Security Agency, has maintained a massive communications surveillance operation against Lebanon. Of particular interest to ISNU is the highly-advanced fiber optics network installed by Lebanese Hezbollah for its own operations. WMR has learned that in some cases, the Lebanese government has used the Hezbollah network because is affords more security against Israeli eavesdropping than official Lebanese government networks.

The latest release of classified NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden reveal that NSA's Information Technology Directorate (ITD) has maintained a surveillance operation against Lebanese communications since at least 2007. Although the latest released information does not specifically state that Israel receives intercepted signals intelligence gathered by ITD and NSA Georgia from Lebanon, a previously-released NSA-ISNU memorandum of understanding (MOU) states that ISNU is provided "raw SIGINT data (i..e., signals intelligence information that has not been reviewed for foreign intelligence purposes or minimized)."

In January 2007, NSA Georgia at Fort Gordon, Georgia maintained surveillance of Lebanon's leadership, including the "Ministry of Interior, Parliament Members, and Presidential Palace." Also targeted were the former commander of the Common Border Force. Lebanon is the only country in the world with an agency called the "Common Border Force." The presidents of Lebanon at the time of the surveillance were Emile Lahoud and acting president Fouad Siniora, who was previously prime minister. The Interior Ministers was Hassan Sabeh. The prime minister until 2005 was Najib Mikati.
  
Targeted by NSA acting in concert with Israel: President Emile Lahoud [left], Prime Minister and President Fouad Siniora [center], and Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh [right].
According to the United Nations, the Lebanese Common Border Force was "established by the Lebanese Council of Ministers on 28 July 2007, within the context of a pilot project led by Germany along Lebanon's northern border with the Syrian Arab Republic. Responsible for the surveillance and control of Lebanon's northern border with the Syrian Arab Republic to ensure that the passage of all goods is restricted to legal crossing points only, preventing the smuggling of weapons, ammunition and prohibited material through the establishment of permanent and mobile observation points. The Common Border Force brings together elements from the four principal security agencies responsible for border management and security, namely the Lebanese Armed Forces, the Internal Security Forces, General Security and Customs."

Other Lebanese military officers monitored by NSA Georgia were a colonel in the Information Technology (IT) Directorate, a general in the Medical Command, a general whose affiliation was unknown, an instructor colonel in the Army Staff and Command College, and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Defense Ministry.

Incredibly, NSA Georgia gave high priority to downloading from the Lebanese Defense Ministry a document on the Lebanese Armed Forces review of personnel issues regarding retirement, communications, and health care.



The most recent release of documents from NSA also includes one describing how GSM cellular equipment bound for the "Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE)" GSM network were implanted with a "beacon implanted through supply-chain interdiction." The beacon, once in place, "called back" to the "NSA covert infrastructure." The call back enabled NSA to "further exploit the device and survey the network." This black bag work was carried out under the auspices of NSA's "Tailored Access Operations" or TAO.

TAO oversees an operation where shipments of computer network devices (servers, routers, etc.) are intercepted. Next, they are redirected to a secret location where TAO/Access Operations (NSA AO-S426), with the support of Remote Operations Center (S321), enable the installation of beacon implants directly into NSA's targets' electronic devices. Hard-target networks around the world provide pre-positioned access points for NSA eavesdropping.

On June 20, 2008, WMR reported: "A cable-based telecommunications system installed by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut was so elaborate, the Israelis could neither destroy it nor eavesdrop on it during Israel's 2006 war against Lebanon, according to an Egyptian intelligence source. It is being reported that the sophisticated Hezbollah system is now being extended to northern Lebanon. In addition to the Israelis, the US National Security Agency (NSA) is having trouble conducting surveillance on the Hezbollah system.


Is NSA doing Israel's dirty work in the Middle East?

. . . It is also believed that the January 2008 car bombing of Lebanese Internal Security Force Information Branch officer, Captain Wissam Eid, a noted communications engineer, may have been linked in some way to the Hezbollah communications network. Although the bombing was blamed on Hezbollah, Syria, Hezbollah's ally, was among the first to condemn Eid's assassination."

NSA, according to the Snowden release, managed to intercept communications on the Hezbollah cable communications system by bugging it with implanted Cisco routers and other devices.

THE ROVING EYE - Who profits from killing Charlie? By Pepe Escobar

THE ROVING EYE Who profits from killing Charlie? By Pepe Escobar Putin did it. Sorry, he didn't. In the end, it was not Russia "aggression" that attacked the heart of Europe. It was a pro-style jihadi commando. Cui bono?  Careful planning and preparation; Kalashnikovs; rocket-propelled grenade launcher; balaclavas; sand-colored ammunition vest stuffed with spare magazines; army boots; piece of cake escape in a black Citroen. And the icing on the lethal cake; faultless Paris-based logistical support to pull that off. A former top French military commander, Frederic Gallois, has stressed the perfect application of "urban guerrilla technique" (where are those notorious Western counter-terrorism "experts" when one needs them?) They might have spoken perfect French; others said it was broken French. Anyway, what matters is that they uttered the magic word; "We're al-Qaeda." Better yet; they told a man in the street, "Tell the media that this is al-Qaeda in Yemen", which means, in American terror terminology, al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP), which had Charlie Hebdo's editor/cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier ("Charb") on a hit list duly promoted by AQAP's glossy magazine Inspire. Accusation: "Insulting the Prophet Mohammed." And just to make sure everyone had the perpetrators implanted on their brain, the killers also said, "Allahu Akbar"; "We have killed Charlie Hebdo"; and "We have avenged the Prophet." Case closed? Well, it took only a few hours for French police to identify the (usual?) suspects; French-Algerian brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi. The third man - the driver of the black Citroen, 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad - then turned himself in with an ironclad alibi. So the third man remains a cipher. They all wore balaclavas. The Kouachi brothers have not been captured. But the police seem to know very well who they are. Because they found an abandoned ID in the black Citroen (oh, the troubles of being a command in a rush ...) How come they didn't know anything before the carnage? Right on cue, Cherif Kouachi's bio was splattered all over. He was on a global watch list. Along with six others, he was sentenced in May 2008 to 3 years in prison for "terrorism"; in fact unloading a dozen young Frenchmen via madrassas in Egypt and Syria to none other than Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the killed-by-an-American-missile former head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the spiritual father of Daesh/ISIS/ISIL. Also right on clue, a full narrative was ready for mass consumption. The key point; French police privileges the hypothesis of "Islamic terrorism". According to their "experts", this could be an attack "ordered from abroad and executed by jihadis coming back from Syria that have escaped us", or it could be "suburban idiots that radicalized themselves and concocted this military attack in the name of al-Qaeda." Scrap option two, please; this was a pro job. And staying with option one, this points right at - what else - blowback. Yes, they could be Daesh/ISIS/ISIL mercenaries trained by NATO (crucially, France included) in Turkey and/or Jordan. But it might get even false-flag nastier. They could also be former or current French special forces. Blast Islam, will travel  Predictably, Islamofascism peddlers are already having a field day/week/month/year. For simpletons/trolls/hordes exhibiting an IQ worthy of sub-zoology, when in doubt, demonize Islam. It's so convenient to forget that untold millions from Pakistan's tribal areas to street markets across Iraq continue to feel pain devastating their hearts and lives as they are expendable victims of the jihadi mindset - or "Kalashnikov culture", as it is known in Pakistan - profiting the "West", directly or indirectly, for decades now. Think ritual droning of Pakistani, Yemeni, Syrian, Iraqi or Libyan civilians. Think Sadr City witnessing carnages over 10 times worse than Paris. What French President Francois Hollande defined as "an act of exceptional barbarism" - and it is - does not apply when the "West", France in the front line, from King Sarko to General Hollande himself, weaponizes, trains and remote-controls assorted mercenaries/beheaders from Libya to Syria. Oh yeah; killing civilians in Tripoli or Aleppo is perfectly all right. But don't do that in Paris. So this, in the heart of Europe, is what blowback feels like. This is what people feel in the Waziristans when a wedding party is incinerated by a Hellfire missile. In parallel, it's absolutely impossible that the oh so sophisticated Western intel network had not seen blowback coming - and was impotent to prevent it (how come the scapegoats du jour, the Kouachi brothers, were not in the gallows?) Of course the ultra-elaborate Western counter-terrorism expert network - so proficient at strip-teasing us all at every airport - saw it coming; but in shadow warland, portmanteau "al-Qaeda" and its myriad declinations, including "renegade" Daesh/ISIS/ISIL, are used as much as a mercenary army as a convenient domestic threat "against our freedoms". Who profits?  US Think Tankland, also predictably, is busy spinning the drama of an "intra-Muslim" split which provides jihadis a lot of geopolitical space to exploit - all this sucking the Western world into a Muslim civil war. This is absolutely ridiculous. The Empire of Chaos, already during the 70s, was busy cultivating jihadi/Kalashnikov culture to fight anything from the USSR to nationalist movements all across the Global South. Divide and Rule has always been used to fan the flames "intra-Islam", from the Clinton administration getting cozy with the Taliban to the Cheney regime - helped by Persian Gulf vassals - advancing the sectarian Sunni/Shi'ite schism. Cui bono, then, with killing Charlie? Only those whose agenda is to demonize Islam. Not even a bunch of brainwashed fanatics would pull off the Charlie carnage to show people who accuse them of being barbarians that they are, in fact, barbarians. French intel at least has concluded that this is no underwear bomber stunt. This is a pro job. That happens to take place just a few days after France recognizes Palestinian statehood. And just a few days after General Hollande demanded the lifting of sanctions against the Russian "threat". The Masters of the Universe who pull the real levers of the Empire of Chaos are freaking out with the systemic chaos in the racket they so far had the illusion of controlling. Make no mistake - the Empire of Chaos will do what it can to exploit the post-Charlie environment - be it blowback or false flag. The Obama administration is already mobilizing the UN Security Council. The FBI is "helping" with the French investigation. And as an Italian analyst memorably put it, jihadis don't attack a vulture hedge fund; they attack a satirical rag. This is not religion; this is hardcore geopolitics. Reminds me of David Bowie: "This is not rock'n roll. This is suicide." The Obama administration is already mobilized to offer "protection" - Mob-style - to a Western Europe that is just, only just, starting to be diffident of the pre-fabricated Russian "threat". And just as it happens, when the Empire of Chaos mostly needs it, evil "terra" once again rears its ugly head. And yes, I am Charlie. Not only because they made us laugh; but because they were sacrificial lambs in a much nastier, gruesome, never-ending shadowplay. Pepe Escobar's latest book is Empire of Chaos. Follow him onFacebook. He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.

Hollywood, FL -- Thirteen years later, focal point of 9/11 investigation is no more by Wayne Madsen

Hollywood, FL -- Thirteen years later, focal point of 9/11 investigation is no more

After the 9/11 attack, FBI agents showed up at Shuckum's Oyster Bar located off the main downtown circle in Hollywood, Florida. The agents passed around photographs of two of the men who had been identified as among the reported hijackers of passenger planes on September 11, 2001. Night manager Tony Amos and waitress Patricia Idrissi stated that Mohammed Atta and two other men had come into the bar on the evening of September 7. The other two men were later identified by the FBI as alleged hijackers Marwan al-Shehhi and Abdulaziz al Omari. Al Shehhi drank rum and cokes and Atta pounded back five Stolichnayas and orange juice. After given their tab of $48, Atta began arguing over the bill. Amos asked him if he was able to pay and Atta, pulling from his pocket a roll of cash, said that he was an "American Airlines pilot" and was certainly able to pay. The three patrons then left with Atta leaving a $3 tip. Idriss also recounted that Atta had been playing the video arcade games of Trivial Pursuit and blackjack.

  
Today, many residents of Hollywood are not aware that their town was a major focal point of the 9/11 investigation.

Today, Shuckum's is closed. Moreover, employees of nearby establishments told WMR that the restaurant changed its names and staff some "10 times" over the past several years.

The last reported name of Shuckums was Harpoon Harry's. The windows and front door are blacked out with a notice on the door warning of hazardous materials contained in leased equipment inside the establishment belonging to Multi-Flow Industries of Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. The firm provides soda and other fountain canisters for restaurants.


There is sitll a heavy Israeli presence in Hollywood as this repair shop for Mercedes and BMWs attests.

There was another less-reported factor in the story of the alleged hijackers' stay in Hollywood. In the months preceding 9/11, the Drug Enforcement Administration began compiling a dossier on the activities of at least 120 Israeli "art students" who had attempted to gain access to various federal buildings and the homes of federal employees and officials around the country. The art students claimed to be selling Israeli art to finance their educations in Israel. However, one of the art colleges some of the Israelis said they attended did not exist and the other had no record of their enrollment. WMR covered this story extensively in a 2005 special report.
 
Shuckums [left], a hangout for three of the alleged hijackers, including "lead hijacker" Mohammed Atta, is now closed after changing names several times since 9/11. An ominous warning sign cautions that there are hazardous materials in leased equipment inside the closed restaurant. [right]

One of the Israelis, Hanan Serfaty, lived at 701 S. 21st St. in Hollywood, around the corner from Shuckums. He also lived at the Emerald Greens Apartments at 4220 Sheridan Street, Apartment 303, practically across the street from Mailbox Rentals, where Omari and Al Shehhi, as well as two other hijackers, Khalid al Midhar and Walid al Shehri, maintained a mail drop. Serfaty's residences were close to where Atta and Al Shehhi lived on Jackson Street. Atta and Al Shehhi also lived a few blocks from the downtown area at Apartment 8, Bimini Motel, on North Ocean Drive along Hollywood beach.


Apartment where Israeli suspect Serfaty lived close to mail drop rented by Atta and his team.

THE ROVING EYE - Crime (Israel) and punishment (Russia) By Pepe Escobar

THE ROVING EYE Crime (Israel) and punishment (Russia) By Pepe Escobar The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining it ... A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic -George Orwell, 1984 So Obama, Merkel, Cameron, Hollande and Italian Premier Matteo Renzi - let's call them the Fab Five - get on a video conference call to muster their courage and "increase pressure" asking for a cease-fire in Gaza. Later in the day, Israel's Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu delivers his answer, in plain language: he remains dead set on achieving his version of a Final Solution to Gaza. [1] With or without "pressure". So what's left for the Fab Five after having their illustrious Western collective behinds solemnly kicked? They decide to dump Gaza and instead sanction Russia - again! How brilliant is that as an exit strategy? Spectacular non-entity Tony Blinken, who doubles as deputy national security adviser to Barack Obama, was keen to stress to Western corporate media that the unruly Eurotrash mob is now "determined to act". No, not against Israel because of Gaza; against Russia because of Ukraine. Such a lovely Orwellian symmetry: the extended Two Minutes Hate from Israel towards Gazans morphs into the extended Two Minutes Hate from the "West" towards Russia, mirroring the extended Two Minutes Hate from Kiev towards Eastern Ukrainians. Not even Hollywood could come up with such a plot; Israel gets away with unlawful premeditated mass murder of civilians, while Russia gets framed for a (smaller-scale) airborne mass murder of civilians that has all the makings of being set up by the Kiev vassals of Russia's Western "partners". Here I have exposed how sanctions, sanctions, sanctions is the one and only official Obama administration "policy" on Russia. On top of the next European Union sanctions, coming soon, the US will be piling up - what else - more sanctions. After all, Washington is so "concerned" that Moscow will sooner or later invade Ukraine; that would certainly, and finally, answer all those In God We Trust prayers. Where we stand now Let's follow the facts. Washington from the get-go said it was Russian President Vladimir Putin's missile that downed MH17. They swore they had evidence. Like in "We know. Trust us". The historical record for the past 60 years at least shows they cannot be trusted. There was never any evidence. Just spin. Moscow, via the Defense Ministry, presented hard evidence. And called for an unbiased international investigation. Washington ignored it all - the call and the hard evidence. The US Navy, crammed with state-of-the-art missile defense radars, has been in the Black Sea for weeks now. As much as the Russians, they have tracked every particle flying over Ukraine. The NSA goes for signals intelligence; the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency goes for phenomena in the imagery realm; the Defense Intelligence Agency adds Humint; there's the CIA; and there's the all-seeing, all-knowing Director of National Intelligence. How come all this trillion-dollar Full Spectrum Dominance apparatus cannot come up with a single, conclusive piece of evidence? The only risible "evidence" presented so far pictures the acronym salad of US intel agencies spending their time reading blogs and Twittering. As in the State Department head in Kiev twittering satellite imagery that the New York Times parroted "proved" Russia is shelling Ukraine from across the border. The proverbial "senior US officials" even had to tersely admit on the record they have no proof whatsoever about "Putin's missile". If they had, NATO would be ready to flip burgers in Red Square. Based on the wealth of info now in the open, the top probability of what caused the MH17 tragedy was an R-60M air-to-air missile shot from a Ukrainian Su-25 - and not a BUK (there's also the possibility of a double down; first an R-60M and then a BUK). The R-60M is very fast, with an ideal engagement distance of up to five kilometers. That's how far the Su-25 detected by the Russians (they showed the graphics) was from MH17. SBU - Ukrainian intel - for its part confiscated the recordings of Kiev control tower talking to MH17. That would certainly explain why MH17 was overflying a war zone (Malaysian Airlines revealed they were forced to). Hefty bets can be made the recordings are now being "doctored". Then there are the black boxes, which will not de decoded by the Malaysians or by the Dutch, but by the Brits - acting under Washington's orders. As The Saker blogger summed up the view of top Russian specialists, "the Brits will now let the NSA falsify the data and that falsification will be coordinated with the SBU in Kiev which will eventually release the recordings who will fully 'confirm' the 'authenticity' of the NSA-doctored recordings from the UK." To make it more palatable, and erase suspicions about Anglo-American foul play, the Dutch will announce it. Everyone should be forewarned. NATO heads, for their part, are droolin'. Kiev's forces/militias will hold "joint exercises" with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Ukraine in slightly over a month from now, on September 1; red alert applies, because this is when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the slow motion ethnic cleansing of Donbass will be finished. As for the R2P ("responsibility to protect") angle, it sounds quite improbable. True, Moscow can always say that unless the slow motion ethnic cleansing of Donbass stops they will recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk Republics. In that case, Moscow would be replaying Abkhazia and South Ossetia; a de facto R2P backed by military muscle. Under international law - which Washington never respects, by the way - this is not the same as "invading" Ukraine. The frankly scary Samantha Power, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, would obviously freak out - but that's a dose of her own medicine. It would indeed be comparable to what the Americans are doing to the benefit of those Salafi-jihadis in Syria; and better yet, to what the US did in Kosovo. The $50billion vultures And now, on top of sanctions, Moscow also has to contend with a massive US$50 billion theft attempt. The International Arbitration Court in The Hague found that the Kremlin's pursuit of Yukos and its main shareholder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a decade ago was politically motivated. Moscow can't appeal - but it will pursue all legal avenues for trying to get this ruling "set aside". Well, it's The Hague's decision itself that is political. Khodorkovsky was found guilty not only by the Russian judicial system but also by the European Court of Human Rights. Yukos and Menotep shareholders were and remain a bunch of oligarch gangsters - to put it mildly. So here's the Empire of Chaos once again in action, manipulating a Dutch court after literally stealing Germany's gold and fining France for selling warships to Russia. In this case though, the "West" has more investments in Russia than the Russian government in the West. Payback could be a bitch - as in Moscow, for instance, freezing all US and EU energy investments especially in the new ultra-profitable frontier, the Arctic oil fields. Western Big Oil will never allow this to happen. This could go on forever. The bottom line: the Russian state simply won't allow itself to be robbed by a dodgy ruling on behalf of a bunch of oligarchs. In parallel, a case can be made that not only the Return of the Living (Neo-Con) Dead but also substantial sections of the deep state in Washington DC and environs - as well as "Western" plutocracy - want to provoke some sort of NATO war against Russia, sooner rather than later. And in another parallel line, Moscow rumor has it that the Kremlin finds this protracted post-Yukos battle just an afterthought compared to the economic war about to convulse Europe and eventually pit Europe against Russia: exactly what the Empire of Chaos is praying - and working - for. "Two Minute" Hate? Talk about hours, days, weeks, and years. Note: 1. Netanyahu: We're prepared for an extended operation in Gaza, The Jerusalem Post, July 28, 2014. Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge (Nimble Books, 2007), and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.

Israel's Act of War - The Roadmap to the Destruction of Syria by PEPE ESCOBAR

Israel's Act of War

The Roadmap to the Destruction of Syria

by PEPE ESCOBAR

Just when the red line charade was reaching fever pitch – but still buried in the sand – and he had to choose between the US “exercising restraint” or “directly involving itself” in the Syrian war, (see The Syria-Iran red line show, Asia Times Online, May 2, 2013) President Obama was saved by Bibi Netanyahu’s Israeli government.

The temptation was oh so great for Obama to replay Ronald Reagan and gloriously wear the mantle of Obama The Syrian Mujahid, just as Reagan did in the 1980s with his beloved freedom fighters of the Afghan jihad. That will have to wait – perhaps not too long.

Israel’s motives

Let’s cut to the chase. Israel’s bombing of Syrian army installations at Jamraya near Damascus is a provocation and an act of war. Israel acted as a Washington proxy – which may have even provided the list of targets. And Washington – not to mention those useless puppets in Brussels – won’t condemn the bombing, which for the umpteenth time makes a mockery of international law.

Israel insists the targets were ground-to-ground Iranian Fateh-110 missiles bound for Hezbollah. Damascus says the targets were a military technology institute as well as troop training grounds; there are a lot of apartments nearby, whose tenants the CIA always wanted to recruit as assets. There are no chemical weapons at Jamraya. According to Syrian medical sources, 42 soldiers may have been killed.

Israel’s Hezbollah angle is murky. There’s no confirmation anywhere that Hezbollah bought Fateh-110s. Since 2009, Hezbollah has Syrian versions of the Fateh-110 – the M600, with a range of about 250 kilometers and a decent guiding system.

The usual gaggle of anonymous Washington “sources” insists that the Syrian Army itself needs those missiles against the armed mercenary strands of the self-described Free Syrian Army (FSA). So it would make no sense dispatching them to Lebanon.

But for Israel it makes sense smashing a supply of Fateh 110s – or even M600s. Israel thus directly helps the FSA; one of its spokesmen, by the way, real or fake, went on Israeli TV to praise the bombers. And Israel at least for now prevents more missiles from reaching Hezbollah.

Cutting through the fog is the fact that Israel has a bunch of serious motives to once again go rogue.

It craves a weak, chaotic Syria – deprived of advanced military technology. It craves most of all an all-out Somalization of Syria – a sectarian dystopia. What better justification for Israel to be up in arms 24/7 than hardcore Wahhabi terrorism right across its (non-delimitated) borders? On top of it, Israel wants to drag Syria, Hezbollah and ultimately Iran into all out war. It wants the whole package – and the sooner and better.

Damascus for its part can play chess – and not respond. At least for now. Or let Hezbollah respond – in the near future.

It’s not by accident that the bombing happened after 1) Pentagon head Chuck Hagel’s tour of Israel and the Gulf petro-monarchies; 2) the Syrian Army’s advances during the past few weeks in the Homs corridor against the foreign-
sponsored mercenaries/jihadis; 3) Hezbollah’s Sheikh Nasrallah’s “secret” trip to Tehran; afterwards Nasrallah, a fine geopolitical mind, stressed that what “they” really want is the destruction of the infrastructure, economy and social fabric of Syria – to “destroy Syria as a people, an army, a whole nation”.

If there are further attacks – and there may well be – to deplete the arsenals of the Syrian army, it will be a gift of providence for the mercenaries/jihadis. Nasrallah is absolutely correct that the key objective of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-Gulf Cooperation Council-Israel coalition of the willing is to try to drag Syria into a total war. After an eventual Syrian response, the “solution” would be to carpet-bomb it to Iraqi levels.

Obama the Mujahid’s options

Whether the US/Israeli gambit will be successful is an open question. What it did was to postpone the crowning of Obama The Mujahid.

The netherworlds of US Think Tankland were oh so excited with the prospect of Obama bypassing the UN Security Council (as in Russia and China) a la Bush and unilaterally impose a no-fly zone over Syria – so the US could engage in the requisite “suppression of the enemy air defense campaign”.

Nonsense, although the Brits and France have not given up within the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in fact even trying to bypass NATO in imposing a no-fly zone.

The no-fly zone was being spun in Washington as a means to secure Syria’s chemical weapons. The problem is that Washington has lousy intel on where these chemical weapons are actually stockpiled. And to top it off, chemical weapons were probably used not by the government but by the “rebels” – according to widely respected UN investigatorCarla del Ponte.

The Obama administration was also flirting with “direct lethal aid” to the rebels – as in anti-tank guided missiles and surface-to-air missiles.

Washington believes its own myth that it is “indirectly” involved in vetting and arming opposition groups in Syria. Since 2011, the weaponizing of Syrian mercenary/jihadi gangs has been sourced through the black market, stockpiles in Libya, and in Croatia. The CIA has been up to its neck all along. Many of these weapons are now in the hands of hardcore jihadis of the Jabhat al-Nusra kind.

The notion that the CIA is capable of vetting and weaponizing those gangs/mercenaries/jihadis to Washington’s benefit after the Bashar al-Assad government collapses is THE joke of the early 21st century. Just take a trip down memory lane to Afghanistan.

Or imagine these Syrian McJihadis, or You Tube mujahideen, equipped with some fine shoulder-held heat-seeking missiles wreaking havoc all across Southwest Asia.

So after much huff and puff, Obama ended up with something way more comfortable than a no-fly zone: targeted strikes – with jets and/or missiles, conducted by the Israelis. The blueprint could be Operation Desert Fox (the Bill Clinton-ordered bombing of Iraq in 1998.) The objective, to “send a clear message” to Syria.

The next bombings may target airfields, concentrations of aircraft, more weapons depots, tanks and artillery. Collateral damage, inevitably, will soar, proportionately to the level of provocation.

Former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson, very close to the Clinton clan, has already gamed on ABC News that Obama is “leaning towards aerial strikes”. Yes; this is just the beginning. Mini-Shock and Awes await.

Just follow the roadmap

The question is why did it take so long. The destruction of Syria – as conceptualized by Sheikh Nasrallah – with the West once more collaborating with jihadi gangs, has been in the cards for years. See how Seymour Hersh outlined it in 2007. And see how badly the bipartisan Washington establishment craves regime change.

And Damascus, of course, is just a stop towards Tehran. The proverbial anonymous sources have leaked to the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sunday Times in London that a “Defense Crescent” is becoming a reality.

It’s the same GCC-Israel element in the coalition of the willing in Syria, in this case ganging up to “counter Iran’s nuclear ambitions”. Turkey, the House of Saud, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Israel merrily partying in joint command-and-control centers to detect evil Iranian ballistic missiles.

Don’t know much about history. But what a wonderful world this would be. Presided by Obama The Mujahid.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com. 

This column originally appeared on Asia Times.

Daily Israeli State Terror by Stephen Lendman

Daily Israeli State Terror

by Stephen Lendman

Major media scoundrels suppress reports about daily Israeli state terror. Most Americans, and many others, can't imagine what Palestinians endure.

Every imaginable depravity's included. Torture and murder are state policy. So are forced dispossessions, violence as a weapon of choice, collective punishment, apartheid worse than South Africa's, isolation, home demolitions, land theft, mass arrests, economic strangulation, and much more.

Rule of law principles are systematically spurned. Rogue state policies ignore them. Even Jews face risks. However, Palestinians and Israeli Arabs live under constant threats, especially besieged Gazans facing slow-motion genocide.

Except for death camps, Israel treats Arabs like Nazis treated Jews. Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer was outspoken, saying:

"The Israelis try to dehumanize the Palestinians, just like the Nazis (did) to me. Nobody should dehumanize any others, and those who (do it) are not human."

"It may be that Israel is not the most cruel country in the world....but one thing I know for sure is that (it's) the world champion in pretending to be civilized and cultured."

He also said:

"Formerly, an anti-Semite was somebody who hated Jews because they were Jews and had a Jewish soul. But nowadays an anti-Semite is somebody who is hated by Jews." He added that criticizing Israel isn't denigrating Jews.

A German native, Meyer survived 10 months at Auschwitz. His parents weren't so fortunate. He fled, went into hiding, but was caught and imprisoned. Post-war, he because a physicist, political activist, and wrote three books on Judaism, the Holocaust, and Zionism.

He now lives in the Netherlands, is a member of the Dutch Green Left and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, and supports the global BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) Movement for Freedom, Justice and Equality.

A Day in Occupied Palestine

In the last 24 hours alone, Sheikh Fahmi Asaad Jaradat, chief justice of Palestine's high religious court, died of an apparent heart attack two days after soldiers violently raided his home in the West Bank Zabuba village.

It's not known if abuse contributed to his death. However, Fatah holds Israel responsible.

On Wednesday morning, Israeli soldiers targeted West Bank communities, arresting 20 Palestinians. Those affected lived in Nablus, Yaboud village near Jenin city, Hebron, and nearby villages.

In early morning hours, homes were violently stormed and searched. Property was destroyed. Arrests followed. As always, incursions are politically motivated.

Also early Wednesday morning, soldiers raided two Palestinian television stations in Ramallah. Al-Quds Educational TV and Watan TV were affected. Both were legally registered by the UN's International Telecommunication Union.

Broadcasting equipment, computers and files were seized. Four detentions followed. A Watan TV statement said:

"This attack is nothing but piracy under a policy of systematic attack targeting Palestinian organizations and journalists." (The network) deplores this aggressive behavior against an efficient and effective media organization."

It added that efforts will be made to retrieve stolen equipment and resume broadcasting.

Al Quds Educational TV called Israel's action "harassment to media and educational stations and a way to shut the mouths of media and reporters."

Palestinian MK Mustafa Barghouti condemned the raids, saying:

"This act is not only a violation of human rights and humanitarian law, but a breach of the agreements that forbid the Israeli military forces from entering or carrying out operations" in Area A under Palestinian control. "We will campaign worldwide to repel the Israeli aggression."

Palestinian Telecommunications Ministry undersecretary Suleiman Zuheiri accused Israel of breaching Oslo's Article 36. It requires Israeli/PA consultations. It says a joint committee is charged with addressing communications issues, including growing Palestinian needs.

The PA called Wednesday's raids the beginning of a "frequency war" over limited broadcasting space. It also prevents both operations from building modern wireless networks. Zuheiri believes Israel may target other PA stations to deny Palestinians their own media.

Israel spuriously said both networks operated illegally. In fact, Israel systematically prevents Palestinian journalists from doing their job in violation of press freedom.

Operations are shut down, journalists arrested, and when covering soldier violence against nonviolent Palestinian protesters, they're attacked, beaten and arrested.

Last November, Israel closed Palestinian-Israeli broadcaster Kol Hashalom (Whole Peace). It falsely claimed it operated without proper licensing, even though Palestinian operations aren't under Israeli jurisdiction.

Founded in 2004 by Israeli and Palestinian peace groups, it's now closed unless efforts to resume operations succeed.

At the time, Israel's Communications Ministry spuriously called the studio a "pirate radio station" operating illegally.

In fact, shutting down Kol Hashalom was lawless. Palestine's Communication Ministry licensed it. At issue is silencing peace advocacy and independent voices. Israel never tolerated them and doesn't now.

On February 28, Israeli soldiers attacked a peaceful anti-Gaza Buffer Zone protest near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. Weekly demonstrations protest Israel's no-go border area extending well into Gaza, including its most arable land.

Soldiers attacked protesters with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets. Anyone entering Buffer Zone areas risk being shot on sight, including young children.

During late February's Israeli Apartheid Week, Israeli soldiers attacked demonstrators violently. Sewer water, rubber bullets, and tear gas bombs were used, causing dozens of suffocation cases.

On February 29, Haaretz reported Knesset right-wing furor after Israeli Arab Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran refused to sing Israel's national anthem (Hatikva) at Court President Dorit Beinisch's retirement ceremony.

Friends say he objects on principle. He's lawfully entitled to stay silent as are other Arabs and Jews. Many Israeli Arabs won't sing Hatikva because it reflects Jews yearning for Palestine.

In response, right-wing MKs condemned Joubran. Some want him removed from the bench. MK Michael Ben Ari proposed a "Joubran bill" under which judges not performing IDF service lose eligibility to serve on Israel's High Court.

Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK David Rotem wants Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to retire him. MK Moshe Feiglin wants him forced to surrender his Israeli ID card and receive resident status only.

MK Zahava Gal-On defended Joubran, saying:

Putting "a Supreme Court Justice through Kahana and Lieberman loyalty tests is meant to undermine democracy" and lawful rights of citizens.

On February 28, the Palestine News Network reported an Israeli plan to annex the West Bank entirely, saying:

"Israeli Right-wing (MK) Uri Ariel put forward a plan for" total annexation. He "calls it a political solution, in which Palestinians living in the West Bank (get) a chance for citizenship" in exchange for pledging loyalty to Israel as a democratic Jewish state.

In other words, in return for renouncing their cultural and historic heritage, as well as right to live free on their own land, they'd be considered for second-class Israeli citizenship affording them no rights like Israeli Arabs. They're treated like fifth column threats, not citizens, and are regularly harassed and mistreated.

Ariel and extremists like him believe Palestinians should accept Jordan, not Judea and Samaria, as their state. He also suggests a two-state solution in which one lies west of the Jordan River, another east in Jordan.

At the same time, he wants West Bank territory made entirely part of Israel, including East and West Jerusalem.

His scheme involves giving West Bank Palestinians "green card" residency. After five years, they could apply for citizenship provided they pledge loyalty to Israel and acquired Hebrew language proficiency.

At issue, of course, is making a bad situation worse by proposing what few Palestinians will accept nor should they. Palestine's their home.

Nonetheless, in November 1947, UN General Assembly Resolution 181 granted 56% to Jews (with one-third of the population), 42% to Palestinians, with Jerusalem designated an international city under UN Trusteeship. The area includes all Jerusalem, Bethlelem, and Beit Sahour, encompassing Christian holy sites.

In 1948, Israel's War of Independence seized 78% of historic Palestine, and in 1967 the remainder. Palestinians today accept peaceful resolution based on 22% of Palestine within 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem as their rightful capital. Israel flatly refuses.

Ariel, Netanyahu, and others like them show what they face. Their state terror policies yield nothing but marginal status at best, while all valued West Bank land is stolen and Jerusalem entirely Judaized.

Ariel's proposal begs for rejection and permanent conflict. Daily violence reflects it. Palestinians are on their own to survive.

The whole world's watching, but not irresponsible leaders. Their complicity lets Israel continue state terror with impunity. They share equal guilt in its crimes.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2012/03/daily-israeli-state-terror.html