Harper government’s subservience to Senator McCain and US interests (2)

By TONY SEED

The relations between the Government of Canada and U.S. warmonger Senator John McCain are indicative of the subservient relations with the U.S. imperialists that the Harper government imposes on Canada, and what to expect from this year’s Halifax war conference.

Illegitimate honorary degree

On June 18, 2013 then Defence Minister Peter MacKay went to Washington, DC to consult with newly-installed U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. News agencies carried brief reports that the topics included Canada’s participation in Obama’s Asia Pivot strategy and the continued deployment of Canadian warships and aircraft to the Caribbean and off the Pacific coast of Central America. MacKay reaffirmed this commitment in a keynote address to the Inter-American Defense Board of the Organization of American States, also meeting in Washington that same day.

Syrians gear up for presidential election as rebels retreat from Homs

The mercenaries’ gift to the Syrian people: the pulverized city of Homs. Most parts of Syria have been left in ruins, thanks to financial and material support by the US, Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, among others, to the foreign mercenaries in Syria.

Crescent-online (Damascus) – The last of the foreign mercenaries holed up in Syria’s third largest city, Homs, made their retreat on May 8 under a UN brokered deal. They were given safe passage out of the centre of the city where they were surrounded by Syrian government forces for nearly two years.   

While these mercenaries were retreating, they still continued to carry out bombings in the city. The mercenaries blew up a luxury hotel that had been used as an army-post in the heart of the city. At least 14 soldiers and pro-government militia were reported killed, according to Agency France Presse (AFP).

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (11): Whose sarin? Whose rebels? Whose cherries?

A comment by Tony Seed on the revelations by Seymour Hersh of the duplicity of the Obama (and Harper) regimes and nonsense about the “intelligence community”

(Dec. 12, 2013) – MONTHS after the mysterious gas attacks on 21 August in Ghouta near Damascus, Syria, an article about the perfidious role of the Obama government appeared in the London Review of Books last Sunday December 8th. It is reproduced below. The American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh discloses that the White House directly “cherry picked” intelligence and fabricated facts outlined in the so-called “dossier” of the Obama regime to blame the government of Bashar al-Assad for the use of chemical weapons as part of its warmongering against Syria.

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (7): President al-Assad’s interview with Rossiya 24 TV

Posted below is the full text of an interview given by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with TV channel Rossiya 24, published by the Syrian Arab News Agency, September 13, 2013. Given the continued warmongering by the Obama and Harper regimes, despite the Russia-U.S. agreement regarding the Syria crisis, the interview brings to the fore pertinent information left omitted by the media, the historical context, and the legitimate viewpoint of the Syrian government. The fact that Israel possesses the largest arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, has used them in Gaza and Lebanon without opposition by the U.S., and has refused to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention merits attention and our vigilance.

Russia 24: Why did Syria agree to the Russian initiative which proposes handing over its chemical weapons to the international community? Why so rapidly?

President al-Assad: Over 10 years ago, Syria presented the UN with a proposal for a WMD-Free Middle East; this was because the region is turbulent and has been immersed in wars for decades. Thus removing unconventional weapons would be rational in order to enhance stability. At that particular time the U.S hindered the proposal.

Disinformation on gas attacks in Syria (3): The self-serving twisting of ‘intelligence’

The following article about the gas attacks in Damascus appeared online on Tuesday, September 3rd. Written by the American investigative journalist and historian Gareth Porter, it is one of different reports challenging the “facts” outlined in the so-called “dossier” of the Obama regime as part of its warmongering against Syria. This weblog is circulating it as part of a series of information updates to assist our readers as well as the anti-war forces to maintain their orientation against the massive disinformation coming from the monopoly media, including the CBC. It discloses criminal fabrications and speculations parading as “fact” cooked up to serve NATO’s aggressive aims. One sentence stands out: “The two-page assessment by the British Joint Intelligence Organisation released August 29, pointed to this question: ‘There is no obvious political or military trigger,’ it said, ‘for regime use of Chemical War on an apparently larger scale now, particularly given the current presence of the UN investigating team.’” The use of force to solve political issues and justify foreign intervention is unjustifiable.

By GARETH PORTER*, Truthout | News

SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY assured the public that the Obama administration’s summary of the intelligence on which it is basing the case for military action to punish the Assad regime for an alleged use of chemical weapons was put together with an acute awareness of the fiasco of the 2002 Iraq WMD intelligence estimate.

Nevertheless, the unclassified summary of the intelligence assessment made public August 30, 2013, utilizes misleading language evocative of the infamous Iraq estimate’s deceptive phrasing. The summary cites signals, geospatial and human source intelligence that purportedly show that the Syrian government prepared, carried out and “confirmed” a chemical weapons attack on August 21. And it claims visual evidence “consistent with” a nerve gas attack.

Syria: French colonizers have not accepted the loss of their colony

French General Georges Catroux is walking next to Nur-Eddin al-Khatib, the grandfather of Mouaz al-Khatib, the incumbent president of the foreign terrorist so-called National Coalition for Opposition Forces and the Syrian Revolution. Photo taken in 1941.

By ELENA GROMOVA (Photos, captions and sidebar by Tony Seed)

A PHOTOGRAPH taken in 1941, when Syria was still under the rule of French colonisers, has recently been circulating on social networking sites. In the worn black and white photograph, French General Georges Catroux is walking next to an elderly man with cunning eyes, Nur-Eddin al-Khatib.

More than 70 years has passed and the grandson of this Nur-Eddin – Mouaz al-Khatib, a former preacher at the Umayyad mosque in Damascus and now a deserter and traitor – has been elected head of the “Qatar Coalition” (the so-called “National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Groups” or Syran National Coalition, cobbled together by the United States – TS), which was created on 11 November 2012 at a meeting in Doha.

2012 Halifax International Security Forum

Analysis of the agenda, emphasis, tactics and composition of the Halifax International Security Forum, 2009-2012

Protest against 2011 Halifax International Security Forum.

By TONY SEED

At the 2011 Halifax International Security Forum

ESTABLISHED four years ago, the Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) is taking place November 16-18 at the Westin Hotel. Warmongers from as many as 50 countries are joining Peter MacKay and some 300 others at the Forum “to learn from each other, share opinions, generate new ideas, and put them into action.”

Once again this year, the organization No Harbour for War, joined by others, has come forward to say, “It is unacceptable that Halifax, or any Canadian city, be used as a venue to plan further crimes against the peace and the peoples of the world.”

NATO, German destabilization: Market economy for Syria

german-foreign-policy.com DAMASCUS/BERLIN (May 30) – Berlin is preparing for Syria’s transformation to a liberal market economy. Under German leadership, a multinational “Working Group” began its work late last week. Immediately following the overthrow of the Assad regime, this “Working Group” is planning to launch urgent economic measures, including the coordination of aid projects and the implementation of economic reforms. Together with the United Arab Emirates, the German government is establishing a “secretariat,” under the leadership of a German with Afghanistan experience. In cooperation with the Assad regime, Berlin had already promoted the Syrian economy’s privatization. However, the nascent liberalization drove sectors of the population into bankruptcy, thereby contributing to insurgence against the regime.