The era of retaliation

BERLIN (April 23) – Germany’s defence minister reaffirmed that Berlin is basically ready to participate in military aggressions, such as the recent western attack on Syria. “We could also fulfill the contribution from the air that Great Britain had made in this case,” said Ursula von der Leyen, but “we weren’t asked this time.”

German maneouvres in the wake of the bombs

From the Jasmine city of Damascus (Dimashq) today (Click to nlarge)

BERLIN/DAMASCUS/MOSCOW (April 18) – The German government, after having applauded the bombing of Syria, is now demanding participation in the country’s reorganization once the war has ended.

The search for truth in the rubble of Douma – and one doctor’s doubts over the chemical attack

Robert Fisk, twice British journalist of the year and seven time foreign correspondent of the year, visits the Syria clinic at the centre of a global crisis. He finds zero evidence of the “gas attacks” used as the pretext for the combined US-UK-France aggression on April 13, a war crime, and for a frenzied media campaign to instead find Syria and Russia guilty of a war crime. There is no evidence of the supposed dozens of dead.

The US secret plan against Damascus foiled: Russian role before and after the US-UK-France attack revealed

By ELIIJAH J. MAGNIER

(Damascus)  – Donald Trump has climbed down from the tree he climbed up a few days ago when he gathered a large military force and firepower similar to “operation desert storm” (but without ground forces).  “Plan A” consisted of a destructive attack on Syria to destroy its army, presidential palace, command and control bases, elite force, strategic military and ammunition warehouses, radar, defence systems and political leadership institutions.

Prior to the triple attack on Syria by the US – UK – France, intensive contacts were carried out by Russia and President Vladimir Putin himself – at around 04:00 am– to reduce the attack and go to a softer, less significant “Plan B”.

The proof of the pudding

Ussian: Syrian Army gassed its own people.
Syrian: What is the evidence?
Ussian: We know. We say so. We don’t need any evidence!
Ussian: And! We launched 120 missiles against just 3 targets, Syria didn’t shoot down a single one.
Syrian: We downed most of them and we have evidence.
Ussian: Shut up, you… you Arab! We know! We know! We don’t need evidence!
Syrian: As Engels used to say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating!

US failed attempt to disable the Syrian air force by destroying its airports

US definition of ‘surgical’: 105 missiles against 3 targets, or something else? Two reports.

There is a very large discrepancy between the Russian Ministry of Defense’s report of strike and the description in the Pentagon briefing on the strike. According to the Pentagon, only three places related to non-existing Syrian chemical weapons were targeted:

This combined military strike was directed against three distinct Syrian chemical weapons program targets.
…
In summary, in a powerful show of allied unity, we deployed 105 weapons against three targets.

It does not make any sense to send 35 cruise missiles against each of those not hardened, not defended targets like the now destroyed Barzeh research center which was a small two story building complex and had been declared free of chemical weapons and weapon research by the OPCW. Why would the U.S. military use such a high number of precision weapons against only three targets? This is extremely unusual and does not make sense at all.

Word. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address at the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, Moscow, April 14, 2018

Mr Lukyanov,

Mr Karaganov,

Friends,

Colleagues,

Thank you for another invitation to the traditional annual Assembly of the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy (CFDP). This is a platform for an unbiased discussion, where the participants take part in a private capacity as they discuss the most pressing issues of our country’s foreign policy and security. The fact that those who gather here are like-minded individuals, many of whom are friends, does not exclude but rather presupposes sincere and at times contentious debates. Of course, I prepared a speech but as you understand it was prepared before the events mentioned just now by Mr Karaganov. So I would like to say a few words in an official capacity regarding this burning issue.

Hands Off Syria!

No airstrikes against Syria in the name of high ideals!

On April 13 at approximately 8:30 pm the U.S. imperialists, in coordination with Britain and France, launched a criminal attack by firing missiles on Syria. News agencies reported loud explosions and smoke in the Syrian capital Damascus in the aftermath. The Syrian government reported April 14 that its air defences shot down 73 of 103 missiles.

Cold War provocations to justify aggression

Drum beats of war against Russia

Many commentators have torn to shreds the assertions of the British government that Sergei Skripal[1] and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by a nerve agent called Novichok, and that the Russian government was directly involved | WORKERS’ WEEKLY*

Western threats to attack Syria will not dissuade it from confronting any aggression regardless of its source

(April 11) – Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Dr Bashar al-Jaafari, stressed that the threats by Western states to launch an aggression on Syria and their manoeuvres, misdirection, lies, and terrorism will not dissuade Syria from preserving its sovereignty and territorial integrity and from confronting any aggression regardless of its source, adding that Syria will not allow any of the permanent or non-permanent member states to do in Syria what they have done in Iraq or Libya.

UN Security Council fails to adopt three resolutions on chemical weapons use in Syria

(April 10) – Days after alleged chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma, the United Nations Security Council failed to adopt two competing resolutions that would have established a mechanism to investigate use of such weapons in Syria, as well as another concerning a fact-finding mission in the war-torn country.

Had one of the two mechanisms proposed in the drafts been approved, it could have filled the vacuum left by the Organisation for Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) when its mandate expired last November.

Syria: A US attack is futile but serves a purpose

By M. K. Bhadrakumar*

Haligonians rally against threats of war against Syria, September 7, 2013

(April 11) – The United Nations Security Council turned down a compromise resolution on Syria, proposed by Sweden and seconded by Russia seeking investigation on the alleged chemical attack in Douma. Five countries supported the resolution with two permanent members – United States and Britain – opposing it. Earlier, a resolution on the same lines which was supported by Russia and China was also opposed by the US and Britain.

This is a significant political and diplomatic victory for Russia insofar as only two other countries joined the US and Britain to oppose the Swedish resolution. Six countries abstained.

Monopoly media disinformation on Syria

Actions across Canada against US attacks on Syria

Friday, April 7

Halifax: Hands off Syria! Oppose US air strikes!

Picket • Saturday, April 8 at 1pm • Victoria Park • Halifax, NS (Spring Garden Road and South Park Street)

On April 6th, the 100th anniversary of the American entry into World War One, the US launched missile strikes against Syria.

About 60 tomahawk cruise missiles were launched by the USS Porter and the USS Ross against the Ash Sha’irat airbase near Homs in Syria. The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, forward based at Naval Station Rota, Spain, are part of the US Navy’s 6th fleet.

Oppose US air strikes against Syria! No to escalating the military conflict in Syria! Hands Off Syria!

Thursday, April 6 — 10:30 pm

The U.S. has engaged in criminal activity by launching tomahawk missiles against Syrian military targets on the night of April 6. News agencies report that 50 to 60 tomahawk missiles were launched from two U.S. warships in the eastern Mediterranean between 8 and 9 pm against the Shayrat airbase in Syria, allegedly hitting runways, aircraft and fuel stores. According to some reports, the targeted airbase played a significant role in the Syrian army’s efforts to liberate cities in central, northern and eastern Syria from ISIL, including the battles for Palmyra, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor.

U.S. imperialist president Donald Trump used the pretext of a chemical weapons attack that is widely suspected to have been a provocation by forces in the pay of the Anglo-American imperialists to blame Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad and justify launching the strikes. The aim is to ensure that there is no peaceful, political resolution of the conflict in Syria under the auspices of the Syrians themselves along with those countries they have sought assistance from including Russia.

“Tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched,” Trump said, adding that there can be “no dispute” that Syria was responsible for the use of chemical weapons, which is simply not the case. No evidence has been presented that the Syrian government was responsible for the attack.

Trump said the tomahawk missile attack was to defend the “vital national security interest to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.” To cover up the barbaric nature of this attack, Trump called on “civilized nations” to “join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.” He said “years of attempts at changing Assad’s behaviour have failed.”

News agencies report that there will be no further strikes until “another decision is made.” Trump is alleged to have informed various countries before the attack, including Russia through military channels, and the U.S. said it received support from “a broad list of nations.”

The cruise missile attack comes after 1,000 U.S. ground troops invaded the country in the past weeks with another 1,500 expected to enter soon after.

From the website of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)

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Phony pretexts for regime change

Canada’s initiative at the United Nations to sanction aggression against Syria violates the UN Charter, which states that its very raison d’être is to uphold the sovereignty of nations. Canada is basing itself on the lie that what it calls diplomatic options are exhausted. The U.S. imperialists complain bitterly that Syria has not accepted voluntarily that the U.S. and NATO countries should dictate its destiny, and that institutions such as the UN cannot be used to undermine the sovereignty of its members. As part of creating pretexts for direct aggression against Syria, the U.S. and its NATO allies are taking measures that are falsely called diplomatic. These include sanctions on Syria and Russia, UN Security Council resolutions, the U.S. feigned commitment to ceasefires involving its sponsored fighters, as well as fraudulent accusations and provocations against the Syrian government. When the “diplomatic” measures do not succeed in accomplishing U.S. aims, the foremost aim of which is U.S. domination, then the imperialists assert that diplomacy has failed and aggression is justified.

Canada attacks Syria: Use of deception to cover up aims of US aggression and war

The April 18 Day of Action against Bill C-51 Ottawa march stopped in front of the U.S. embassy at Sussex and Clarence St., emphasizing the role of U.S. imperialism and its “war on terror” in creating the kind of state security apparatus the Canadian government is now strengthening. Outside the embassy demonstrators affirmed that they do not want Canada to follow in the footsteps of U.S. crimes such as torture and impunity of secret police. | Renewal Update

In a flourish of fearmongering and deception, the Harper Conservatives on March 24 announced their intention to extend Canada’s military mission in Iraq and expand it to Syria as part of the U.S.-led coalition which is waging a dubious, unjust and unlawful military aggression against those countries.

According to the Harper government, “Jihadi terrorism” poses a great threat not only to the people in the region but to Canada and the rest of the world. Harper and his ministers say that the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” (ISIS) has declared war on Canada, and to protect Canadian citizens the government will extend and expand the bombing into Syria without consulting the Syrian government.

This is a reversal of what the Harper government said six months ago: that Canada would not conduct raids into Syria without the “clear permission” of the Syrian government. Minister of Defence Jason Kenney stated that Canada’s entry into Syria has come at the request of the U.S. itself.

Human Rights Watch: Uses photo of US bombing destruction of Syria to condemn Assad

Putting its hypocritical and biased nature on full display once again, the alleged human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, was recently caught in an attempt to fabricate “evidence” of Assad’s use of barrel bombs in civilian areas for the purposes of further demonizing the secular Syrian government. BRANDON TURBEVILLE*

Fighting ISIL is a smokescreen for US mobilization against Syria and Iran

By MAHDI DARIUS NAZEMROAYA

(Sept. 17) – THE ISIL or IS threat is a smokescreen. The strength of the ISIL has deliberately been inflated to get public support for the Pentagon and to justify the illegal bombing of Syria. It has also been used to justify the mobilization of what is looking more and more like a large-scale U.S.-led military buildup in the Middle East. The firepower and military assets being committed go beyond what is needed for merely fighting the ISIL death squads.

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (15): US chemical weapons illegally left in Panama

The Obama regime has launched a new offensive against Syria as part of its warmongering, that allegedly it is refusing to dispose of its chemical weapons. The US repeatedly accuses the Syrian government of deception and violation of international law. But this disinformation remains silent on the danger posed not only by the huge arsenals at the disposal of the US but also by Israel and the other big powers, as well as the fact that the US is the largest stockpiler of chemical and biological weapons and regularly supplies them to other countries. The US has repeatedly postponed the timeline for disposal of its own arsenal of chemical weapons, the largest in the world, until 2020.

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (14): MIT study finds Syrian government not responsible for Ghouta chemical attacks

New MIT study finds Syrian government not responsible for Ghouta chemical attacks (Youtube video)

THE U.S. disinformation that a chemical attack near Damascus in August was carried out by the government has been challenged by a team of highly respected American experts. Washington immediately blamed President Assad, but a new report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which arguably has one of the world’s top engineering schools, found that the rocket could not have been fired from government-controlled areas.

For more on the study, see “Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (12): UN Report confirms Syrian chemical weapons fired from rebel-held territory,” January 21, 2014