News from Syria - 03/29/2016

Pentagon Orders Hundreds Of Military Families To Evacuate Turkey

Zero Hedge.

28 March, 2016

Has the US finally had enough of its "ally" Erdogan?  

Moments ago the DOD announced that the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Secretary of State, has authorized the ordered departure of all DoD dependents not assigned to Chief of Mission authority from Adana (to include Incirlik Air Base), Ismir, and Mugla, Turkey. This decision allows for the deliberate, safe return of family members from these areas due to continued security concerns in the region.

It adds that while "this step does not signify a permanent decision to end accompanied tours at these facilities", the evacuation "is intended to mitigate the risk to DoD elements and personnel, including family members, while ensuring the combat effectiveness of U.S. forces and our mission support to operations in Turkey. The United States and Turkey are united in our common fight against ISIL, and Incirlik continues to play a key role in counter-ISIL operations."

“The decision to move our families and civilians was made in consultation with the Government of Turkey, our State Department, and our Secretary of Defense,” said Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, Commander, U.S. European Command. “We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong Ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism.”

Stars and Stripes adds more:

The Pentagon is ordering the evacuation of nearly 700 military family members from Incirlik Air Base and two smaller military installations in Turkey because of concerns over the deteriorating security environment there.

Families are expected to begin leaving Turkey on Wednesday, stopping first at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, before continuing on to the States or other duty locations, U.S. European Command told Stars and Stripes.

“We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism,” EUCOM chief Gen. Philip Breedlove said Tuesday in a statement.

The mandatory departure order, announced by the State Department, affects nearly all Defense Department dependents assigned to Incirlik, as well as those at smaller bases in Izmir and Mugla.

About 670 dependents are expected to be evacuated, along with 287 pets. About 770 dependents, most from Incirlik, are currently in Turkey, EUCOM spokeswoman Julie Weckerlein said. Those allowed to stay are the family members of mission-essential personnel.

This is all taking place one day after the Turkey Foreign Ministry, outraged by a satirical clip making fun of the Turkish President and his recent policies that was broadcast on German television, summoned the German Ambassador for official explanations. Following the broadcast of the satirical piece titled “Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan” on NDR show titled “Extra 3” on March 17, German Ambassador Martin Erdmann was summoned up several days later to officially explain “in length” the reasons for the broadcaster’s behavior, Der Speigel has learned.

The one minute and 52 second long satire package showing footage from recent history in Turkey criticized Erdogan's increased crackdown on the freedom of the press and hostile policies in the region, including Turkey’s alleged support for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters in neighboring Syria.

The video also focused on the lavish living of the Turkish president and his multibillion euro deals with the Europeans to keep migrants at bay. The broadcast on German television comes at a time when Germany, as part of EU is actively seeking closer ties with Turkey to help tackle the migrant crisis in Europe.

Erdogan’s crackdown on journalists and restrictions on freedom of speech have been repeatedly criticized by the international community, along with Ankara’s controversial anti-terrorists campaign against Kurdish militants which inflicted much suffering on Turkey’s minority population.

The day the satirical piece was aired, RT launched a petition calling for a UNHRC-led investigation into claims of alleged mass killing of Kurdish civilians committed by the Turkish military during Ankara’s crackdown on Kurds in the country's southeast.

The video is below:

Turkey 'demands deletion' of German video mocking Erdoğan

Ankara summons German envoy to explain song lampooning Turkish president, according to reports

CrossTalk: Bullhorns Unlimited

Why can’t Europe protect itself from terror attacks – does Brussels have misplaced priorities? Also, Russia as universal bogeyman – when the U.S. and the EU stare failure in the face blaming Russia is the first excuse of convenience. And is Trump on to something – should there be a serious re-think about the necessity of NATO? And finally Ukraine again – Crimea’s democratic return to Russia two years on...

CrossTalking with Patrick Henningsen, Dmitry Babich, and Xavier Moreau

Syrian soldiers celebrating their victory on ISIS in Palmyra

RussianHero Who Died Liberating Palmyra Is Dad-to-Be Alexander Prokhorenko

The Russian Special Forces officer who was killed during the operation to liberate Palmyra from the Daesh terrorist group has been named as 25-year-old Alexander Prokhorenko, who ordered air forces to strike his position after he was discovered by Daesh terrorists.

A Russian Special Forces Officer called the "Russian Rambo" by the international press for his act of heroism in Syria has been named as 25-year-old Alexander Prokhorenko. 

Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad Have Liberated Syria from the USA and “Jihadist Alliance”

Eric Zuesse

Uprooted Palestinian

29 March, 2016

It has been an alliance between the leaderships of U.S., Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE; but, regardless of whether it’s called “the U.S. alliance” or “the Saudi alliance,” or even (possibly) “the Turkish alliance” (and it could be called by any of those three names), it’s the jihadist alliance, and it now seems to be near its final defeat, by, quite clearly, the Russian alliance: Russian air power has enabled the Syrian army (called the SAA or “Syrian Arab Army”) of Bashar al-Assad, plus Lebanon’s Shiite warriors (called “Hezbollah”), plus organization by Iran’s generals, to exterminate thousands of ISIS jihadists. The pro-Syrian alliance, under Russian air-power, are now making final preparations to finish the job, in the Syrian headquarters of ISIS — the city of Raqqa, where ISIS’s “Caliph” is, who could soon be meeting his end.

This major military victory, in Palmyra — the center of the Jihadist-controlled region of Syria (and located south of Raqqa, separated from it only by desert) — was announced on Easter Sunday, 27 March 2016, by the website Syrian Perspective (one of the world’s two great news-sites covering the Syrian war, the other being Al Masdar News), as they headlined, “Palmyra Liberated! General Ayyoob Reviews Troops in Aftermath of Enormous Victory; What’s Next?” Reporter Ziad Fadelopened:

HOMS: The rats inside were finally given the go-ahead to withdraw to Al-Sukhna, Al-Raqqa and Dayr El-Zor, but not by the rodent commanders in Al-Raqqa. This was a desperate order by Abu-Ihaab Al-‘Iraaqi, the local commander who, evidently, values his life on earth a lot more than what was promised to him by the shamans of ISIS This morning at 5:00 a.m., the SAA had confirmation from sources inside the city that the piece-meal escape was taking place. The Syrian high command ordered troops to stand down until the last rodent had left, after which time the SAAF and RuAF would take to the skies to see how many of the stragglers could be exterminated. It’s over.

The Syrian and Russian Air Forces have been directed into the air to block any movement of terrorist ISIS rodents to any area considered a stronghold. This means that no deal was ever struck between the army and the murderers inside the city. Instead, what happened was the army was commanded to permit a withdrawal with the understanding that escaped rats would still be targets once the city was liberated. As I write, SAA engineers are everywhere inside the city removing IEDs, booby-traps and mines. It’s a thankless task replete with danger, but, it must be done in order to return the population to a safe city.

He went on to explain that the head of SAA’s Special Forces unit, called “Tiger Forces,” “is very keen on being the leader of the force which will liberate Al-Raqqa and his forces to the east of Aleppo are preparing for exactly that.”

The key question now is whether a deal can be reached with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS’s leader or “Caliph,” in Raqqa — a deal which won’t require the entire population of Raqqa to be massacred, in order for the Russian alliance to eliminate all of ISIS’s leadership, and all of its jihadists there. Ideally, some way will be found to salvage at least some of the civilian population who are being held, essentially as slaves, by ISIS. However, Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, has stated, on several occasions, that what’s most essential is for the jihadists in Syria, and in Iraq, to be killed where they are — not allowed to escape to become terrorist cells in Russia or anywhere else (as has been happening, though not on the huge scale that would result if Baghdadi and his jihadists are allowed to escape.

In a related event that also signals the defeat of the terrorist alliance, Middle East Eye, yet another of the key independent reporting sites regarding the war in Syria — and specializing on the entire Middle Eastern region — headlined on Friday the 25th of March, “Jordan’s King Accuses Turkey of Sending Terrorists to Europe,” and David Hearst reported:

King Abdullah of Jordan accused Turkey of exporting terrorists to Europe at a top level meeting with senior US politicians in January, the MEE can reveal. 

The king said Europe’s biggest refugee crisis was not an accident, and neither was the presence of terrorists among them: “The fact that terrorists are going to Europe is part of Turkish policy and Turkey keeps on getting a slap on the hand, but they are let off the hook.”

Asked by one of the congressmen present whether the Islamic State group was exporting oil to Turkey, Abdullah replied: ”Absolutely.”

In other words: the U.S. alliance is coming apart, at least at the edges, when the reality becomes revealed — despite the long hiding of this fact on the part of Western ‘news’ media — that the U.S.-Saudi-Qatari-Turkish-UAE-Israeli alliance has been supporting jihadist Sunni groups in order to weaken the only non-Sunni-run nations in the Middle East, Syria and Iran, both of which (and Syria’s government is more properly to be called non-sectarian  than Shiite, because the Ba’athist Party, which has been leading Syria since the 1950s, is ideologically committed to secularism and against sectarianism of any type, neither Shiite nor Sunni nor any) have allied themselves with Russia, instead of with the U.S.

The origin of the CIA aspect of this operation was well covered in an extraordinary BBC documentary in 1992, and the broader aristocratic operation was reported in my article, “The Two Contending Visions of World Government.” During Obama’s Presidency, one of the major physical battlefields in this global war has been in Syria; another, in Ukraine, Obama’s coup there, was well covered here.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

The original source of this article is Global Research

U.S. Still Demands Assad’s Removal in Syria

Eric Zuesse

GeorgeWashington’s Blog,

28 March, 2016

A news report from Russia’s Interfax News Service quotes “the press-secretary of the US embassy in Moscow,” whom it identifies as “William Stevens,” as saying that during a meeting U.S. CIA Director William Brennan had in Moscow with “Russia officials” “in early March,” “Director Brennan” chose “to emphasize with Russian officials the importance of Russia and the Assad regime following through on their agreements to implement the cessation of hostilities in Syria” and that, “Director Brennan also reiterated the US government’s consistent support for a genuine political transition in Syria, and the need for Assad’s departure in order to facilitate a transition that reflects the will of the Syrian people.”

All of this is from Russia’s Sputnik News, that allegedly “William Stevens told RIA Novosti.”

Western news services are citing that Russian source as the sole source in their own reporting of the matter; and no denial has yet been issued by the U.S. government.

If the allegation is true, then the U.S., “in early March,” was demanding “Assad’s departure,” despite there being no participation of the Syrian people in that decision — no new election in Syria, much less Assad’s losing any such election; and, yet, Mr. Brennan was demanding this, “in order to facilitate a transition that reflects the will of the Syrian people,” somehow (despite there being no democratic process whatsoever).

Even Western polling firms have been finding that Assad’s remaining as Syria’s leader is supported by 55% of Syrians, and that the U.S. is blamed by 82% of Syrians as being the source of Syria’s civil war: “82% agree ‘IS [Islamic State] is US and foreign made group’.” In other words: Syrians, the most secular, the most anti-theocratic, people in the entire Middle East, blame people such as John Brennan as the source of their miseries. This same poll found that “79% agree ‘Foreign fighters made war worse’.” It also found: “70% agree ‘Oppose division of country’.” 

The Obama Administration favors breaking Syria up into sectarian enclaves: Alawite-Shiite, versus Sunni, versus Druze, versus Kurd. This would be essential in order to permit Saudi Arabia to build an oil pipeline into Europe through the Sunni part of Syria, and Qatar also to build a gas pipeline through the Sunni part of Syria, both in order to get their (U.S.-corporate-backed) oil and gas into Europe, so as to replace Russia’s main market for its oil and gas, which is the EU.

The same poll also found that “65% agree ‘Syrians can live together again’.” 

Clearly, American involvement in the political process in Syria is unwelcomed, if not loathed, by the Syrian people. They don’t want the U.S. to continue supporting the jihadists who are destroying their country; and they also don’t want the U.S. dictating that Bashar al-Assad will stop being their leader.

None of these facts are brought up by any of the moderators in the U.S. Presidential candidates’ debates. However, some of those moderators are on my email list for all of my news-reports (which have covered all of these matters), and therefore it would seem unlikely that the reason for the matter’s not being covered — at all — is that they are ignorant of the reality. The explanation must be something other than ignorance.

Probable Cause with Sibel Edmonds: Syria & the Real Winners of a Synthetic Conflict

In this episode we are going to briefly discuss synthetic conflicts. In particular we’ll be looking at the real gains and the real winners- rather than getting lost in the distortion maze that has been designed by the deep state, and implemented via their propaganda tentacles-Media. With all the talk on the ISIL conflict, and with all the speculations surrounding Russia’s in-and-out of Syria maneuver, it is time to put aside the lenses provided by the media (aka the deep state propaganda machine), bring out the magnifier, and search for the truth of these matters by following the money.