September 29, 2016
last edits January 8, 2017
Since this post has the right title and is still getting many views, this is the right place to put a different article not yet written, that best explains how we can know, for fairly sure, that neither Russia nor Syria had a hand in attacking that aid convoy back on September 19, 2016. I re-named and moved the previous article to "Did the Russians Slant Gravity?". The space below will contain a summary of the evidence per our findings and others', and links to the few posts here.
Aleppo Convoy Attack posts:
- How we "Know" Russia or Syria Bombed the Aleppo Aid Convoy
- Did the Russians Slant Gravity?
- "Humiliating Aid" Rejected by Whom?
- Assessing the UN Report
For a fuller view, see also ACLOS research:
- main page: Attack on Red Crescent convoy in Urm al-Kubra
- talk page (as usual, contains much un-formatted research that should be on the main page but isn't)
- PavewayIV responds to Bellingcat (first analysis)
Some quick visual points:
Rebels staged this supposed blast of a Russian OFAB-250 bomb. Not a good sign. Also, they might have fired the actual weapon used here, from nearby to the south (see did the Russians slant gravity?).
At least five cases of what seems like paper signs torn off the aid trucks by hand in areas of little damage. ... see the "humiliating aid" article for context.
Sent you a direct message on twitter - greetings
ReplyDeleteAh, so I know who Anon is is this case. Won't blow yer cover. :)
ReplyDeleteOf course it was a set up ! I watched the first news of this and low and behold , commentator was a White Helmet . . .no doubt in my mind then . . .set-up . . False flag ! They want Russia out and they'll play dirty !
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carol. Good instincts then. Some just run with that and preach to the choir. But I know those outside the choir matter more to reach and my feeling won't be communicable to them. To those people, a White Helmet explaining everything is fine, a hero telling the truth. Hell, even undeniable proof isn't very communicable. But we try.
DeleteI'm taking this to a few people on Twitter (taking suggestions). So far, here's what I've sent.
ReplyDeleteTo the WaPo writers behind this piece:
https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/781836166358110208
@leloveluck Fragments of gravity bomb, NOT directly beneath the hole. Why?
To Bellingcat:
https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/781836467408556032
@bellingcat Gravity bomb remnant NOT below entry hole. Why? Any comment?
https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/781837660620857344
@bellingcat Prediction: Bellingcat will be too busy circle-jerking over MH17 and have no comment on this epic fail.
(that was to spur a comment - if there is one I'll try to remember and share it here)
A website called BELLINGCAT, run by Eliot Higgins, immediate produced ‘a report’ entitled, “Confirmed : Russian Bomb Remains Recovered from Syrian Red Crescent Aid Convoy Attack”. This was meant to implicate Russia in the said airstrike, or “bombing” incident. ‘Bellingcat’ claims to be an independent ‘open source‘ intelligence website run “by and for citizen investigative journalists“, but in reality, it exists in order to support the narratives that serve NATO, and more specifically – the British Foreign Office or the US State Dept narratives. Producing flimsy and unsubstantiated evidence to support accusations against Russia, especially with regards to the Ukraine and the MH17 event, and now with Syria – seems to be Belingcat’s primary function. One clear indicator that Bellingcat is probably working on behalf of the British Foreign Office is that Eliot Higgins has a direct line of communication with the Foreign Office construct, embedded exclusively in and alongside Nusra Front & ISIS terrorist forces in Syria, none other than the ‘White Helmets’. This connection was openly admitted by Bellingcat: “Since the post was published the Bellingcat team has been in touch with the Syrian Civil Defence unit closest to the attacked site, who recovered and photographed two pieces of debris, including the object featured above.”
Deletehttp://davi-luciano.myblog.it/2016/09/28/syria-white-helmets-nato-and-soros-funded-staged-russian-bombing-scene-near-aleppo-lapped-up-by-mainstream-media/
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/09/21/aleppo-un-aid-analysis/
ReplyDelete© 2016 Brown Moses Media Ltd. Office 6th, 3rd Floor, 37 New Walk, Leicester, LE1 6TA
Brown Moses Blog
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3390388&userid=27232&perpage=40&pagenumber=77
Brown Moses has followed the Arab Spring from its very inception. He has become so good at aggregating information that some have accused him of working for MI6, the CIA, or Mossad
http://garvaisi12.hubpages.com/hub/The-Arab-Spring-Just-What-Is-Happening
You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com ...
1 July 2014 Update - The Bellingcat Kickstarter is now live, with more details on Bellingcat. Donate £5 or more to get access to the Bellingcat website, with exclusive content and podcasts.
Brown Moses Announces Bellingcat - Open Source Investigations For All
21 jul. 2014 I'm Eliot Higgins, aka Brown Moses, of the Brown Moses Blog and now Bellingcat, AMA (self.syriancivilwar)
I'm Eliot Higgins, probably more well known as Brown Moses of the Brown Moses Blog. I've just launched my new website, Bellingcat, which I'm currently also Kickstarting to ensure we can keep it going.
Yeah, I've been aware of the guy since 2011. Sometimes it seems he copied my methods ... he blabbed about Libya at the Guardian, got some fame from the Houla Massacre, collecting reports and videos, echoing rebel claims, but doing no serious analysis. At ACLOS, we did and in the end those videos prove rebels took over the massacre area right before the massacre. He never has found time to to find any problems with that work.
DeleteSome collaborative open source investigator. He's shit when it comes to peer-reviewing anything he don't like. No reply to my tweets here, and it seems they aren't going to approve my comment to appear, even now days later.
Bellingcat is involved in a project named OCCRP which is supposedly concerned about the detection of corruption around the globe.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.journalism.co.uk/news/new-bellingcat-project-to-investigate-cross-border-corruption/s2/a562610/
Einige Journalisten erklären sich das so: Sie sagen, Higgins muss Waffen verkauft haben, weil er so viel über das Thema weiß.
Auch werden ihm Verbindungen zur CIA, MI5, MI6, Mossad, mit der Bilderberg-Gruppe und George Soros nachgesagt. Der Niederländer Joost Niemöller schrieb dazu auf seinem Blog „Der neue Realist“:
„Higgins ist ein Teil des Mediennetzwerks The London Projekt Investigation, einem Zusammenschluss von allen Arten von Hackern und Journalisten der Financial Times. Diese Gruppe arbeitet, wie sie von sich selbst sagt, auch mit der viel größeren OCCRP zusammen, dem Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
http://www.epochtimes.de/politik/welt/mh17-abschuss-bilder-von-russland-gefaelscht-das-machen-bellingcat-und-elliot-higgins-a1243308.html
But if you go to the OCCRP website and look closely they have only one goal: Vladimir Putin.
Who finances OCCRP ? The CIA via USAID and Open Society!
Open Society is George Soros attempt to gain global dominance. OS also directs the Foundation Open Ukraine (it is part of the Soros “Open Society”). Partner of Open Ukraine: NATO, National Endowment for Democracy, the US State Department, Chatham House and an international “Renaissance Foundation”, which is funded by George Soros.
http://www.whathappenedtoflightmh17.com/russia-continues-to-criticize-bellingcat/
Higgins has become a favorite, too, of the Atlantic Council, which has partnered with him for a report about Russian involvement in the Ukraine conflict, and he wins praise from the Soros-financed Human Rights Watch, which has lobbied for U.S. military intervention against the Assad government in Syria. (Like Higgins, Human Rights Watch pushed discredited theories about where Syrian sarin-gas attack originated.)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.basfeijen.nl/newcoldwar/mh17bellingcat.htm
HRW employed so called video expert Eliot Higgins and his colleague Daniel Kaszeta to investigate the August 21 chemical attack in Ghouta, and quickly reached the conclusion the Syrian government was behind the attack. Daniel Kaszeta was referred to as a fraud by prominent physicist and MIT Professor Theodore Postol. HRW’s CEO Kenneth Roth recently used a report by Eliot Higgins to make unfounded claims about Ukrainian rebels shooting down Malaysian flight MH17. Heather Saul did not respond to questions on whether Eliot Higgins was one of the expert she asked for advice. However the mainstream media’s most often quoted video expert, did not recognise that the video was a fraud, tweeting cautiously that he wasn’t sure if it was authentic but gave the video a reaction non the less.
However many viewers who aren’t referred to as video or Middle East experts, immediately recognised the video was a fraud and flooded social media sites Twitter and Youtube with doubts on its authenticity. If Heather Saul had used these individuals as experts rather than HRW, she would have reached the correct conclusion about the video. But perhaps it is this unbias eye that the mainstream media avoids. The vast majority of Higgin’s conclusions support US government narratives and agendas, and that’s the kind of bias the mainstream media prefers.
http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2014/12/08/what-the-fake-syria-sniper-boy-video-tell-us-about-media-experts-hrw/
A website call
Yet, because Higgins’s claims dovetail so neatly with U.S. government propaganda and neoconservative narratives, he is treated like an oracle by credulous journalists, the Oracle of Leicester. For instance, Australia’s “60 Minutes” dispatched a crew to Higgins’s house to get the supposed coordinates for where the so-called “Buk getaway video” was filmed another curious scene that appeared mysteriously on the Internet.
ReplyDeletehttps://consortiumnews.com/2015/10/20/mh-17-case-old-journalism-vs-new/
Higgins has spread misinformation on the Internet, including discredited claims implicating the Syrian government in the sarin attack in 2013
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2015/10/8/19954/9065
For the record, a lot of what they find is not wrong - much is basic visual stuff, correctly matching weapons, geolocating stuff - that's easily shown wrong but it's just right. Probably not a perfect record there, but good. Got and published an ID of old CW attack gas grenade as something al-Nusra had - but then passed on claims they were stolen from the army, and helicopters dropped the relevant grenades ... so, selective skepticism, and everything read between the lines (like this Russian OFAB tail actually fell from a jet right into this crater) can't be trusted.
DeleteAnd some criticism of Eliot/Dinglecat are just amusing. The claim that they work from a couch rather than doing field research is silly. You can get what, a huge travel bill and hassles, missed time at paid work, some accurate measurements, some more interviews with likely liars, and maybe you get killed in another false-flag incident in terrorist turf.
DeleteI and my teammates don't travel either, and study open-source stuff, but we do it with what seems to be a more accurate starting bias. So we can't back the couch potato attack. And how do these armchair warriors know what other people are sitting on?
The Bellingcat site has a piece entitled "Confirmed :
ReplyDeleteRussian Bomb Remains Recovered from Syrian Red Crescent Aid Convoy Attack" which includes this picture as well as several others. You may look at the others, but this one picture is apodictic proof 1) that the Russians (or Syrians) didn't do it and 2) that Bellingcat is a loyal servant of the Borg.
He spends a lot of efforts to establish that the metal piece is the tail piece of a Russian-made OFAB 250-270 Fragmentation High Explosive Bomb. No argument there, I'm sure it is. Said bomb has 92kg of explosive. Which is quite a lot.
https://www.sott.net/article/329447-Bellingcat-unwittingly-shows-Russia-didnt-bomb-Aleppo-aid-convoy
Are you saying that this is a site where High Explosive bomb has detonated on photos? Seriously?
https://017qndpynh-flywheel.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/syria-aid-convoy-bomb.jpg
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/09/22/russian-bomb-remains-recovered-syrian-red-crescent-aid-convoy-attack/
https://urs1798.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/ctcbwwyxgaaj56b-kenneth-roth.jpg?w=600&h=645
ReplyDelete— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) September 23, 2016
Russian bomb (used by Russian and Syrian bombers, not NATO or drones) found in obliterated humanitarian convoy. https://t.co/S2wLvP07Yj pic.twitter.com/7uozRqzeDr
https://urs1798.wordpress.com/2016/09/23/hurra-der-alternative-friedensnobelpreis-geht-an-kopfabschneider-und-komplizen-weisshelme-white_helmets-alqaeda-jundalaqsa/
Kennet Roth ;OFAB bomb found in remains of obliterated humanitarian convoy. OFABs are designed by Russia, used by Russia & Syria. http://bit.ly/2diM2JY
https://urs1798.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/warum-duerfen-medizinische-hilfswerke-fuer-al-kaida-taetig-sein-wie-bei-khan_tuman-aleppo-un-hilfskonvoi-false-flag-pr-syria/ctcbwwyxgaaj56b-kenneth-roth/
https://twitter.com/kenroth/status/779938301297975296
Tue, Dec 8, 2015 Why does the Qatari Minitry of Defense want to buy enormous arsenal of the air bombs, not only unfit for their aircrafts, but at a price 3 times (!) higher than the market one? (normally OFAB 250-270 is sold at US$700-800 per item)
http://orientalreview.org/2015/12/08/where-will-the-ukrainian-bombs-explode/
The answer is horrifically simple: to make an OFAB 250-270 explode you do not need to drop it from a jet – it can be done right on the ground. Any Qatar-linked terrorist group can drive it to a highly-populated area in Syria and stage a “merciless strike by the Russian aviation”. No doubt the a number of absolutely independent forensic experts would promptly conclude that this type of bomb is widely used by the Russian AF in Syria.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/09/syria-the-aid-convoy-attack-points-to-further-escalation-.html
ReplyDeleteMAC blast
, the Russians detected a Predator drone which took off from Incirlik airbase in Syria
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-23/caught-tape-did-us-target-syrian-aid-convoy-hellfire-missile
U.S. Air Force photographer Staff Sgt. Larry Reid
The best eyes over Syria are Aerial Warning and Control aircraft (AWACS). The most powerful, pervasive AWACS airplane is the E-3A. The United States and NATO have deployed these airliner-sized jets to the region to make use of their powerful radar and other tools to monitor and manage Syrian airspace.
On top of airspace management, an AWACS aircraft collects intelligence about what's moving around Syria.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a23009/convoy-attack-syria-radar/
Fri, Jan 22, 2016 The Kurdish dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are reporting today that US troops have taken over control of the Rmeilan airfield in northeastern Syria’s Hasakeh Province, the first US military base inside Syria.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/occupation-us-troops-take-over-syria-airbase/ri12359
Dunford agreed with Graham’s assertion that the US had two objectives – to destroy IS and to “remove Assad,” referring to the Syrian president – but admitted the Kurds were not interested in the latter.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/09/23/no-fly-zone-would-require-war-with-syria-and-russia-general-dunford/
Popular Mechanics - I saw that. Interesting conclusion:
DeleteThere are two possibilities: Thanks to all this surveillance might, the U.S. and its Allies know who exactly who destroyed that convoy—Syrian or Russian, or both— and from what base. But for reasons yet to be revealed, they haven't disclosed it to the world. This could be to protect secret electronic surveillance methods, or to preserve the administration's thus-far ineffective diplomatic efforts. The second possibility is also alarming: Because of gaps in the surveillance net over Syria, the military doesn't know.
And there's no third option at all, or a non bad-guy variant for the first. Only regime-Russia can possibly fly there. If a US or Turkish jet or drone was there on a false flag mission, the radar data would be withheld to hide that. But if there was such a mission, they would have said so, right? And they never did. So it's not even worth mentioning as a hypothetical. And they don't show the radar data, maybe because they're being diplomatic.
Blamed on Russia, the event sabotaged a cooperation deal w/Russia the US didn't actually want, 2 days after the US showed their attitude by killing and wounding almost 200 Syrian soldiers and pretending it was a mistake, of a kind they "hope" to not keep making... So yeah, it must be the diplomatic option.
Or maybe that doesn't add up, and it's the 'no one was watching just then' option. Because there aren't any other options, right?
“The eyewitnesses will tell you what happened,” Kerry said. “The place turned into hell and fighter jets were in the sky.”
ReplyDeletehttps://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/24/another-kerry-rush-to-judgment-on-syria/
Another WaPo piece also says that Selmo
is not just a local tea drinking rescue worker in Urum al-Kubra:
By nightfall, more than 100 bombs had landed, and more than 80 people were dead,
said Ammar al-Selmo, head of the Aleppo branch of the White Helmets civil defense group.
https://off-guardian.org/2016/09/27/syria-conflicting-reports-dubious-witnesses-challenge-convoy-attack-case/comment-page-1/
Note also that the ‘White Helmets’ are drawing finance of at least $60 million primarily from NATO members states, including at $23 million from US AID (US State Dept), $25 million (£19.7 million) from British Foreign Office, $4.5 million (€4 million) Netherlands, and other funding directly from the EU supposedly for ‘assistance and training,’. Initial investigations into the extent of the EU funding and equipping of this deceitfully self-proclaimed “independent first-responder” is still ongoing but has already demonstrated that the EU is also heavily invested in this fifth column, terrorist support ‘NGO.’
It was announced, just today, that the German Foreign Office is officially funding the White Helmets with $7.86 million (7 million Euros). Also, the recent awarding of the “Alternative Nobel Peace Prize” to the White Helmets seems to be another conveniently-timed PR device designed to further legitimize additional public funding for what can rightly be described as a terrorist-linked criminal entity.
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=140084
http://atimes.com/2016/09/un-halts-aid-after-convoy-attack-kerry-says-ceasefire-not-dead/
DeleteBut what transpired alongside Highway 60 would quickly become obscured in a contest of international finger pointing. Both the Russian and Syrian governments denied striking the convoy and suggested, at different times, that it could have been destroyed in a fire or a ground offensive by terrorists or a strike by a U.S. Predator drone. The United States - just days after mistakenly bombing a Syrian Army position - accused both countries of deliberately targeting the aid and its guardians.
October 7, 2016 US Secretary of State John Kerry has called for Russia and Syria to be investigated for war crimes. Kerry's charge comes on the same day that the Obama Administration has officially accused Russia of a series of cyber-attacks aimed at the US election process.
“Last night the regime attacked yet another hospital and 20 people were killed and 100 people were injured,” Kerry said at a press conference following a meeting with French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, notes The Guardian. “Russia and the regime owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals and medical facilities and women and children.”
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/world/john-kerry-calls-russia-be-investigated-war-crimes
6 October 2016 The UN's top diplomat for the Syrian crisis has offered to personally escort hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters out of Aleppo if it would end hostilities, warning that the city will be completely destroyed by Christmas if the current levels of fighting continue.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/06/un-diplomat-offers-to-personally-escort-900-al-qaeda-fighters-ou/
Al-Nusra - currently operating under the name Jabhat Fateh al-Sham - offered no immediate response to the UN diplomat’s dramatic offer but Russia said it was interested and rebel groups in eastern Aleppo expressed dismay and anger.
Syria's Assad Offers Rebels Amnesty If They Surrender Aleppo
7 October 2016
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Syrias-Assad-Offers-Rebels-Amnesty-If-They-Surrender-Aleppo-20161007-0003.html
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the relentless Russian and Syrian bombardments could result in the fall of rebel-held eastern Aleppo within "weeks if not days."
The army announced a reduction in shelling and air strikes on Wednesday to allow people to leave. It backed that up with an ultimatum: "All those who do not take advantage of the provided opportunity to lay down their arms or to leave will face their inevitable fate."
"It's impossible for the rebel groups to leave Aleppo because this would be a trick by the regime,"
Zakaria Malahifji, a Turkey-based official for the Fastaqim group present in Aleppo told Reuters
http://www.euronews.com/2016/10/06/russia-warns-us-not-to-strike-syrian-army
note to Kerry: it seems like perhaps ALL the witnesses from inside the attack wound up dead. The witnesses we've heard from are the US-paid Islamist propagandists in "civil defense." These were the original source of the contested claims, and can't be called on as independent support.
Delete30.09.2016 A few days ago the "rebels" had accused the UN, which had goods on the convoy, of partisanship and said they would boycott it. "Rebels" in east Aleppo had demonstrated against UN provided help and said they would reject it. There was a general rejection of the ceasefire by the "rebels" and they were eager to push for a wider and bigger war against Syria and its allies. Al-Qaeda in Syria even made a video against the ceasefire. A part of the ceasefire deal is to commonly fight al-Qaeda. They naturally want the deal to end. The attack on the aid convoy seems to help their case.
ReplyDeleteThe motive argument makes an attack by the "rebels" plausible and an attack by Syria and its allies implausible.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/09/30/syria-aid-convoy-attack-points-further-escalation.html
5. Russia went public with its intel, providing back up evidence to confirm, that a US predator drone was overhead in the skies at the same time as the attack. At the same time, it says that the cause of the loss of about 2/3rds of the aid caravan (18 of 31 trucks) was the result of 'fire'.
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/09/russias-counter-blow-info-war-victory.html
Russia has pointed out that there are no craters and that the chassis of the trucks are intact, indicating pretty conclusively that the damage is from a ground attack.
http://www.dailystormer.com/no-u-after-bombing-syrian-army-west-blames-russia-for-convoy-bombing-they-didnt-do/
http://www.worldinwar.eu/russian-mod-releases-footage-of-attacked-un-aid-convoy-in-syrias-aleppo-video/
Briefly, and contrary to the impression given by Kerry and others, the Russians have not said how the convoy was attacked or by whom or how it came to be destroyed. They have merely denied that they or the Syrians did it, and have provided commentaries on what they say is some of the evidence they have or which they have seen.
That evidence includes a video which they say shows armed Jihadis shadowing the convoy in a vehicle equipped with a mortar, information that a US Predator drone was in the area, and analysis of video evidence of opposition activists which they suggest shows that the convoy was set on fire, and was not destroyed as the result of an air strike.
http://theduran.com/us-admits-doesnt-know-russia-attacked-aleppo-convoy/
Eliot :In the last couple of years I've done events, met various groups, and so on, and there's always these great ideas and people who just aren't being brought together to work together. Bellingcat is partly to address that, I want to bring together people, tools, and techniques, and get them working together in the best way possible.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/2bbo2s/im_eliot_higgins_aka_brown_moses_of_the_brown/
Open source analysis by research teams
at CIT and Bellingcat, two groups dedicated to analyzing photos and information from conflict zones, suggest that the bomb could be an OFAB 250-270, a high-fragmentation weapon designed to destroy exposed equipment and personnel. OFABs are of Russian design and are in use by both the Russian and Syrian air forces.
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/how-the-attack-on-the-aid-convoy-in-aleppo-unfolded-1.430827
Such claims have also been made by the Conflict Intelligence Team, a group of Russian investigative bloggers founded in 2014 that monitor Kremlin's military movements.
http://www.khodorkovsky.com/the-conflict-intelligence-team-versus-the-kremlin/
In 2015, Mikhailov and Leviev expanded their skills with a new project, eventually focusing on Russia’s role in the Syrian conflict.
It is also dangerous work, forcing the majority of the group to work in complete anonymity.
Mikhailov says CIT has up to five full-time members, with expertise in important fields such as weapon identification. The exact identities of these members are not known even to Mikhailov and Leviev. It is a security measure that allows them to capitalize on expertise within Russia, where the threat of arrest and prosecution for this kind of activity has been growing steadily.
https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/out-in-the-open-latest-mh17-report-55518
Together with colleagues in the Bellingcat investigation group, Mikhailov and Leviev were pioneers of open-source research techniques. They pieced together apparently unconnected data — pictures, public information and web resources — into compelling documented histories.
Their open-source research provided crucial evidence, for example, that located a Russian Buk launcher in the region where MH17 was shot down.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/28/troubling-gaps-in-the-new-mh-17-report/?print=print
http://en.hromadske.ua/articles/show/Russians_In_Ukraine_Exile_Expose_War_Crimes
Mikhalov was introduced to the Conflict Intelligence Team during their MH17 investigation, which subsequently led to his first investigation of a Russian soldier fighting in Debaltseve. He is now “proving war crimes committed by the Russian Airforce” in Syria, where the CIT was first to share the story of a Russian Marine influx at an airport in the western part of the country.
http://atimes.com/2016/09/un-halts-aid-after-convoy-attack-kerry-says-ceasefire-not-dead/
ReplyDeleteBut what transpired alongside Highway 60 would quickly become obscured in a contest of international finger pointing. Both the Russian and Syrian governments denied striking the convoy and suggested, at different times, that it could have been destroyed in a fire or a ground offensive by terrorists or a strike by a U.S. Predator drone. The United States - just days after mistakenly bombing a Syrian Army position - accused both countries of deliberately targeting the aid and its guardians.
October 7, 2016 US Secretary of State John Kerry has called for Russia and Syria to be investigated for war crimes. Kerry's charge comes on the same day that the Obama Administration has officially accused Russia of a series of cyber-attacks aimed at the US election process.
“Last night the regime attacked yet another hospital and 20 people were killed and 100 people were injured,” Kerry said at a press conference following a meeting with French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, notes The Guardian. “Russia and the regime owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals and medical facilities and women and children.”
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/world/john-kerry-calls-russia-be-investigated-war-crimes
6 October 2016 The UN's top diplomat for the Syrian crisis has offered to personally escort hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters out of Aleppo if it would end hostilities, warning that the city will be completely destroyed by Christmas if the current levels of fighting continue.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/06/un-diplomat-offers-to-personally-escort-900-al-qaeda-fighters-ou/
Al-Nusra - currently operating under the name Jabhat Fateh al-Sham - offered no immediate response to the UN diplomat’s dramatic offer but Russia said it was interested and rebel groups in eastern Aleppo expressed dismay and anger.
Syria's Assad Offers Rebels Amnesty If They Surrender Aleppo
7 October 2016
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Syrias-Assad-Offers-Rebels-Amnesty-If-They-Surrender-Aleppo-20161007-0003.html
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the relentless Russian and Syrian bombardments could result in the fall of rebel-held eastern Aleppo within "weeks if not days."
The army announced a reduction in shelling and air strikes on Wednesday to allow people to leave. It backed that up with an ultimatum: "All those who do not take advantage of the provided opportunity to lay down their arms or to leave will face their inevitable fate."
"It's impossible for the rebel groups to leave Aleppo because this would be a trick by the regime,"
Zakaria Malahifji, a Turkey-based official for the Fastaqim group present in Aleppo told Reuters
http://www.euronews.com/2016/10/06/russia-warns-us-not-to-strike-syrian-army
Levant Front
ReplyDeletehttp://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/57605?lang=en
What Does the Levant Front Represent?...loosely referred to as the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Most of these groups seem to receive support directly or indirectly from the Turkey-based Military Operations Center (MOC), a multinational support structure that is staffed by the United States and other nations
....
The independence flag is also shunned by the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda franchise active in some areas of the Aleppo Governorate, which recently clashed with Western- and Saudi-backed rebels; the Nusra Front was apparently not invited to join the Levant Front.
The Army of Mujahideen (Arabic: جيش المجاهدين, Jaysh al-Mujahideen) is a coalition of Islamist rebel groups which formed in order to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Syrian Civil War.[19On 6 May 2015, it, along with 13 other Aleppo-based groups, joined the Fatah Halab joint operations room.[12] It announced its support to Turkey against the PKK.[26]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Mujahideen
Syrian opposition groups divided over Jabhat Al Nusra
April 4, 2016 But one thing is certain: any settlement between the Syrian government and opposition will leave no role in the country’s future for ISIL and Jabhat Al Nusra.
Excluding ISIL is easy. The group is universally despised, declaring rebel factions — including ones where Salafi-Jihadi ideology is prominent — as apostates and attacking those who do not surrender.
Jabhat Al Nusra is more difficult. With a Syrian leadership and a much higher percentage of local fighters in its ranks, Al Qaeda’s organisation in Syria has been heralded as a vital, organic part of the uprising by many rebel groups over the years. And unlike ISIL, Al Nusra is open to making friends and working alongside other factions. Al Nusra has also cultivated close relationships with rebel groups and led many key offensives against regime forces.
http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/syrian-opposition-groups-divided-over-jabhat-al-nusra
“We absolutely do not agree with Jabhat Al Nusra. We do not want Jabhat Al Nusra’s ideology to be in Syria now or in the future. But we need fighters who will fight with us against the regime," said Zakaria Malahefji, a political officer with Fastaqim Kama Umrit, a coalition of rebel groups in the city of Aleppo.
Nusra Front is well-known to be a proxy group representing al-Qaida in Syria. The group was publicly blacklisted by the U.S. government in 2012, despite continuing to secretly receive aid from the U.S., as Ford maintained in his statements. U.S. weapons have also repeatedly ended up in the hands of Daesh, amid rumors that the U.S. deliberately supported them to help put pressure on Assad.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/213352-2/213352/
12 Sep 2016
21 FSA, rebel and jihadi groups reject officially the cease-fire conditions and refuse to take a distance from #AQ
https://twitter.com/EjmAlrai/status/775424349318840322
Jaish al-Mujaheddin, was unclear, thanks for the details. Al-Nusra affiliated. I hear they ran the initial crossing from government territory, but the al-Zenki group ran the area of the actual attack. They like to boast they're worse than ISIS as they behead kids.
DeleteAs for those fighting ISIS and reluctantly taking al-Nusra's more pragmatic aid ... yeah, good-cop/bad-cop set ups or Hegellian dialectics will work like that.
https://ansarukhilafah.wordpress.com/category/the-groups-that-fight-in-syria/
ReplyDeletehttps://ansarukhilafah.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/wpid-tumblr_inline_nndwwxp2ap1ttnnjz_1280.jpg?w=640
[The Friends of Syria]
The Saudi operation for shipping heavy rocket launchers from the Balkans to Aleppo is complicated.
The rockets are fixed to vehicles weighing 43.7 tons each. The rockets themselves are 7.6 meters long and weigh 800 kilograms.
To arrange the transfer of this heavy artillery to the rebels in Aleppo, Prince Bandar contacted Hakan Fidan, head of the MIT-Turkish National Intelligence Organization. They agreed to set up an overland route from the Balkans via Turkey
and across the Syrian border to Aleppo, under the protection of the Turkish army.
http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/arirusila/article/us-recycles-its-old-balkan-practice-with-syria.html
One can hear John Kerry endeavouring to placate these people by discussing how he has promoted the use of force in Syria: “For us politically where you have a Congress who will not authorise our use of force. Congress will not pass that and so we’re trying to help the best way we can, but we finally decided the best thing we can do is try to find a way with a political solution where the opposition is part of the government and you can have an election.” (I suppose this will be like the election they set up just after they destroyed Libya and the BBC and Al Jazeera went into overdrive touting it as ‘democracy’ having been achieved in Libya – oh yeah, that worked really well didn’t it?)
http://stop-imperialism.com/2016/10/03/11307/
He admits this but has sent TOW missiles and in April this year sent 3,000 tons of weapons during a ceasefire to the ‘opposition’ – a list is detailed in Janes Military Index.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane%27s_Information_Group
According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, quoting documents released by the U.S. Government’s Federal Business Opportunities (FBO), the US –as part of its “counterterrorism campaign”– has provided Syrian rebels [aka moderate Al Qaeda] with large amounts of weapons and ammunition.
The US and its allies (including Turkey and Saudi Arabia) have relied on the illicit trade in light weaponry produced in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, China, etc. for delivery to rebel groups inside Syria, including ISIS-Daesh and Al Nusra. In turn, operating out of the occupied Golan Heights, Israel’s IDF has provided weapons, ammunition, logistical support to Al Qaeda rebels operating in Southern Syria.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-military-aid-to-al-qaeda-routine-shipments-of-weapons-to-syrian-freedom-fighters/5548960
‘democracy’ having been achieved in Libya – oh yeah, that worked really well didn’t it?)
ReplyDeleteDays later, Belhadj accompanied TNC Chairman Jalil on a trip to meet with financiers of the revolution and NATO officials in Qatar, a conservative Muslim state which had become a key supplier of arms to Libya’s rebel fighters.34, 35
http://www.kronosadvisory.com/Kronos_A.View.To.Extremist.Currents.In.Libya_CondensedVersion.pdf
27 Nov 2011 Abdulhakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, "met with Free Syrian Army leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey," said a military official working with Mr Belhadj. "Mustafa Abdul Jalil (the interim Libyan president) sent him there."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8919057/Leading-Libyan-Islamist-met-Free-Syrian-Army-opposition-group.html
When the Qaddafi regime was ousted, Belhadj took control of the Tripoli Military Council.
In 2011, Belhadj met with anti-Assad “rebels” in Turkey to plan weapons shipments from Libya to Syria.
Immediately, Ankara mobilised the citizens of Misrata in Libya. These are mostly the descendants of the Jewish soldiers of the Ottoman Empire, the Adghams, and the nomadic merchants descended from black slaves, the Muntasirs, who had supported the Young Turks. They formed the only significant Libyan group capable of attacking Tripoli [2].
Simultaneously, Ankara organised several meetings of the Syrian opposition in Istanbul, from August 2011. Finally, the Muslim Brotherhood constituted the Syrian National Council in October, associating representatives from the diverse political and minority groups.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article188337.html
There is also a private airport in Misrata, which operates direct flights to Istanbul, away from the eyes of state supervision. Through this airport, fighters are transported to Syria via Turkey
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/libya-brink
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438605/hillary-clinton-benghazi-scandal-arming-syrian-rebels
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/04/28/seymour-hersh-hillary-approved-sending-libya-sarin-syrian-rebels.html
On Oct. 30, 2011, Fox News reported that Libya interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jabil confirmed the presence of chemical weapons in Libya and acknowledged that some sarin gas was missing from chemical weapons stockpiles in the country.
The recent history of sarin gas attacks in Syria also appears to trace back to Iraq and Libya.
http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/reports-sarin-gas-used-by-u-n-backed-libyans/#wVuOdXw1WaZUSlv0.99
Obama launched the war to overthrow Qaddafi in Libya, throwing his support to the al-Qaeda affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). Weapons were provided to the LIFG by Obama through Qatar and the UAE. Once Qaddafi had been assassinated, this same al-Qaeda-affiliated LIFG network then ran weapons seized from Libyan stockpiles to al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist organizations in Syria and throughout Africa. (See “Updated Fact Sheet: Obama’s Saudi Connection; the Obama—al-Qaeda Alliance” The UN Report findings are damning.)
ReplyDeletehttp://africanagenda.net/libya-the-real-warlords-exposed/
Efforts by Libyan brokers to supply the rebels have coincided with, and perhaps been tied to, efforts by Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan to arm the rebels. … Global initiative against Transnational Crimes (2013 Study)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-military-aid-to-al-qaeda-routine-shipments-of-weapons-to-syrian-freedom-fighters/5548960
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/world/africa/in-a-turnabout-syria-rebels-get-libyan-weapons.html?_r=0
Orders are placed and shipments arranged through the staff of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, a Western-backed opposition committee that was formed in Turkey late last year.
The Sherif referred to is believed to be better known as Khalid al-Sharif, a former Libyan deputy minister of defence who visited Serbia in 2013 and who has close ties to Islamist fighters.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/drugs-diamonds-and-bullets-balkan-arms-firm-linked-to-criminal-investigations
The documents show a list of ammunition, rocket launchers and mortar shells to be exported by Tehnoremont and MDI to an official named as Khaled Sherif, apparently acting on behalf of the Libyan Ministry of Defence.
Letters from 2013 show LIFG's Khalid al-Sharif (alQaeda veteran) purchasing weapons from Serbia & Belarus
http://asian-defence-news.blogspot.com/2015/04/letters-from-2013-show-lifgs-khalid-al.html
http://arhiva.dalje.com/en-world/un-suspects-illegal-arms-trades-between-bosnia-and-libya/541163
October 6, 2016 The US and its allies (including Turkey and Saudi Arabia) have relied on the illicit trade in light weaponry produced in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, China, etc. for delivery to rebel groups inside Syria, including ISIS-Daesh and Al Nusra.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/U.S._%E2%80%9CMilitary_Aid%E2%80%9D_to_Al_Qaeda%2C_ISIS-Daesh%3A_Pentagon_Uses_Illicit_Arms_Trafficking_to_Channel_Enormous_Shipments_of_Light_Weapons_into_Syria/54518/0/38/38/Y/M.html
https://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2013/11/22/obama-decides-to-train-al-qaeda/
ReplyDeleteIn the aftermath of the recent fighting in Tripoli on November 15, which resulted in 43 dead and 460 wounded,
it was Khalid al-Sharif who, according to the Libya Herald, ordered the Tripoli Local Council to demolish all of the buildings belonging to Qaddafi-regime officials in the district of Gharghour, from which the Misratan forces had fired on demonstrators. The decision (number 14328-38) was reportedly issued on November 17 after “a series of meetings with many officials and influential people of Tripoli.”
https://jamahiriyanewsagency.wordpress.com/2016/06/21/dozens-dead-and-wounded-east-of-tripoli/
Dozens Dead and Wounded in Clashes East of Tripoli (Garabouli )
Khaled al-Sharif [leader of Al-Qaeda in Misrata] in his interview past today (21.11.2012) to Misurata TV channel said literally: “We have successfully liberated Bani Walid of the infidels and lechery and deployed the army of Allah
Источник: Libya, the message to the media: On the statement of the leader of Al Qaeda in Misrat|Greenkomitet.ru
12–14 OCT: The Sabratha Municipal Council
http://libyanwarthetruth.com/bernard-levy-sneaks-libya-meets-khalid-sharif-and-terroist-leaders-sabratha
13–14 OCT: The Misratan Sitara militia, led by Khalid al-Sharif,
clashed with Sariya 11 Militia (affiliated with Mustafa al-Kikli) fighters from the city of Kikla, killing an individual and kidnapped another, in the Akuwakh neighborhood of Tripoli. (Libyan News 1)(Afrigate)(Twitter)(Libya Herald)
Oct 16, 2015
https://medium.com/libya-security-monitor/libya-situation-update-13-16-october-7c0ad6994c91#.v6uo6z5wh
In March, during a meeting with Turkish intelligence in Istanbul, Khaled al-Sharif proposed the assassination of Libyan National Army officers in Tripoli as a means of neutralizing opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood’s usurpation of Libya.
The agenda involved replacing the legitimate Libyan National Army with his National Guard.
As a result of this initiative, several LNA officers have been brutally murdered.
https://jamahiriyanewsagency.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/forget-september-and-february-conspiracy-be-damned-release-all-political-prisoners-now/
getting way off topic here but wow, interesting times continue in Libya, and that struggle continues.
DeleteSome additional and interesting information about "incident in Urm al-Kubra". For example, why the UN staff got instructions to no accompany the humanitarian convoy (for the very first time in the history of the UN humanitarian operations)...
ReplyDeletehttps://alaff84.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/aleppo-war-and-diplomacy-p-vi-i/