Assad Is Out Of Control

In 48 hours Bashar al-Assad, Iran and Hezbollah launched attacks at the Syrian Rebels (and civilians), Israel, and Lebanon as is being reported by Debka.com.

In the space of 48 hours, the Assad regime, Iran and Hezbollah launched a three-point offensive against foreign intervention, debkafile reports. Here are some facts: The sarin nerve gas atrocity of Wednesday, Aug. 21, alleged to have claimed more than 1,000 lives, was the work of the 155th Brigade of the Syrian army’s 4th Division, headed by President Bashar Assad’s younger brother Gen. Maher Assad.

The poison gas shells were fired from the big Mount Kalmun army base south of Damascus, one of the three repositories of Syria’s chemical weapons. In response to a demand from Moscow last December, Assad collected his chemical assets in three depots. The other two are Dummar, a suburb 5 kilometers outside Damascus, and the Al-Safira air base, west of Aleppo. Not a single shell or gram of poison gas is loaded for use at any of the three sites without an explicit directive from the president or his brother.

Therefore, the clamor raised by the US and French presidents, Western prime ministers and Russian leaders for an independent investigation to turn up evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Syria and identity of its perpetrator – the Assad regime, says the West, and a rebel provocation, according to Moscow – is nothing but playacting. The facts are known and the evidence is present. And the price for refusing to come down to earth and putting an immediate stop to this horrifying precedent may be unimaginably grim – not just for Israel and Jordan – but for the rest of the Middle East and beyond.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commented Thursday, Aug. 22 that Iran is using Syria as its testing ground while closely monitoring international responses to its actions.

His remark followed the four Grad rockets fired on northern Israel the day after the chemical attack in East Damascus. His words were scarcely noticed, mainly because Israel’s own spokesmen were busy spreading a blanket of disinformation over the attack, attributing it vaguely to “Global Jihad” (whatever that is).

debkafile’s military sources affirm that, just as the Assad brothers orchestrated the chemical shell attack on Syrian civilians, so too did Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah set in motion the rocket attack on Israel.

By good fortune, the two which exploded in built-up areas caused damage but no casualties and a third was intercepted by Iron Dome.

Nasrallah had his disposal two Palestinian terrorist groups functioning in Lebanon and Syria under direct Iranian command. They are the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian – General Command (PFLP-GC) and Jihad Islami – both of them eager to attack Israel. Then, on Friday night, two car bombs blew up outside Sunni mosques in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli, killing 42 people and injuring 500.

The triple coordinated outrages added up to a dire warning from Tehran and Damascus about what they have in store for the region, and especially Syria’s neighbors, as payback for foreign intervention in the Syrian civil war. On the subject of intervention, the French daily Le Figaro took the liberty last Thursday, Aug. 23, of lifting wholesale and publishing without credit the exclusive report carried Wednesday, Aug. 21, by debkafile. We were the first publication in the world to reveal on Saturday, Aug. 17 the entry from Jordan into southern Syria of a unit of US-trained Syrian rebel commandos, under the caption: Reported Syrian gas attack after first US-trained rebel incursion from Jordan. In that report, debkafile was also the first to expose Assad’s poison gas attack as a warning of the heavy price he would exact for intervention in the Syrian war by foreign forces or by rebels trained by foreign forces – in this case US instructors and officers based in Jordan.

CBS News reported Friday that US and Israel intelligence monitoring known chemical weapons sites detected activity there 20 minutes before the chemical shells were fired Wednesday. Those agencies were therefore on top of valuable advance information, but did nothing to stop - or even warn against – the coming poison gas attack.

Washington and other Western capitals as well as Israel continued to circle around reality Friday and Saturday, when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel let it be known that US warships had been sent to the region for possible cruise missile attacks, in case the president decided on action against Syria.

The Secretary “forgot” to mention that, had the president really wanted to do something, all he had to do was keep the USS Truman aircraft carrier, which was present in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, the day of the chemical attack, from sailing out through the Suez Canal Thursday.

Furthermore, America doesn’t need to send more warships to the region for possible attacks on Syria. It holds plenty of assets at US air and missile bases crisscrossing the Middle East, southern and central Europe and the Persian Gulf. All are fully capable of conducting a variety of operations against Syria without bringing in extra warships.

Except that none of these assets has so far been ordered into action.

What could the Obama administration do if it was so minded?

debkafile’s exclusive military sources described three options available:

One: Striking the Syrian unit which perpetrated the poison gas last Wednesday east of Damascus.

Two: Destroying the Syrian army’s three chemical weapons depots.

Or Three: Coordinated attacks on the first two targets.

For Options Two and Three, the attack would have to destroy all the poison shells at once before they exploded and leaked contamination across wide regions of Syria and neighboring Turkey, Israel and Jordan. The Syrian ruler is capable of having the shells’ contents mixed and armed ready for use ahead of a US attack, thus maximizing the deadly impact of lethal gases across a broad Middle East region.

Notwithstanding the grave risks of action, the consequences of inaction by the US and Israel would be worse: It would give Damascus and Tehran a green light for escalating their viciousness – and not just against the Syrian people. If the barbarity is not stopped, they will get away with making nerve gas and other poison substances acceptable weapons for fighting their foes. Lebanon and Israel are in extreme jeopardy.

SOURCE

President Barack Hussein Obama talks a good talk, but that is all that he does.  A year ago he drew a line in the sand.  Bashar al-Assad has crossed it not once but twice.

Obama's Red Line



Click here if video fails to load.

It is a shame that it was said by a man with a yellow streak a mile wide down his back.

The civilians of Syria are caught in the middle.  On one side is Assad, backed by Hezbollah and Iran.  On the other side is al Qaeda and strict Islamic Law (They are already destroying the churches.)  Either side wins and they will lose.  Yet this is a civil war.  A war no one should get involved with.  This is a problem that the Syrians must solve on their own.

Gang of 2 Caves: Lindsey Graham John McCain Give Up Fight to Block Hagel Nomination

Chuck Hagel's speech at Rutgers University in 2007 has been on the front burner the last few days because he is alleged to have said in that speech: the U.S. was an "adjunct of the Israeli Foreign Ministry." Just as Senators Graham and McCain say they will remove the 'hold' on Hagel's nomination as they take him at his word (silly boys) that he doesn't "recall" saying it, we get this news: Hagel's Rutgers' speech was scheduled, and Hagel was escorted to it, by Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian politician who is currently on the ballot to run for President and to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Amirahmadi is pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah and you can't get on an Iranian ballot unless you are "Shia, male, and committed to the Islamic revolution," and the Mullah's must approve your candidacy, according to Daily Caller. So after making a lot of noise about a 'block, the Gang of 2 have have lain down and rolled over.

While both men have said Hagel is "unsuited" for the position, the purpose of the "block" to deny an up or down vote, was intended to force the administration to hand-over answers to questions on Benghazi and the deaths of 4 Americans. Laughable, as two separate contempt of court charges against Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and a U.S. lawsuit and Contempt of Court charge by the House of Representatives (and I remember a contempt of court charge as well) against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder  can't move this administration. The administration is lawless and it's time this Congress understand the Rule of Law is dead.

The Hagel "adjunct" quote came from this blog post, dated March 3, 2007, written by George Ajjan who ran for Congress in 2004. The enthusiastic and political Hagel supporter highlighted the speech in 7 points. Hagel's speech transcript has been found, but the question and answer period was not transcribed. The search is on. Congress has requested two additional speeches by Hagel and the waiting stonewalling continues.

Never mind, these two Senators have abandoned their 'hold' just as evidence piles up, they've gotten no answers to the important questions they sought and answers the American people are due, a connection to an Iranian Islamist, whose goal is to demolish Israel surfaces, isn't enough to keep them hot and bothered. Graham and McCain always look for camera time, and this is how they stay relevant in the news. Photo credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP