Thread: Russia says U.S. tries to justify terrorism in Syria

Russia says U.S. tries to justify terrorism in Syria

By Steve Gutterman
MOSCOW | Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:48am EDT


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Wednesday of trying to justify terrorism against the Syrian government and berated Western nations it said had failed to condemn a bomb attack that killed senior security officials.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, referring to what he said were comments by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland indicating such attacks were not surprising, said: "This is a direct justification of terrorism."

"To put it mildly, we don't understand the refusal of our partners to condemn the terrorist attack in Damascus," he said.

He suggested Washington was using the threat of further attacks to push the U.N. Security Council to place international mediator Kofi Annan's peace plan under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention, although U.S. officials have said they would prefer the former course of action.

Lavrov said the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, had cited the July 18 bomb attack in Damascus as evidence that the Security Council should not delay further in adopting a Chapter 7 resolution.

"In other words this means 'We will continue to support such terrorist attacks until the Security Council does what we want,'" Lavrov told a news conference after talks with Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis.

"This is a terrible position."

Lavrov criticized Western sanctions on Syria and defended Russia's veto last week of a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have threatened the Syrian authorities with sanctions if they did not halt violence.

He also reiterated Moscow's stance that Assad's departure from power could not be a precondition to a political dialogue aimed at ending the 16-month-old conflict and that Syrians themselves must decide the country's future.

Two rebel Syrian groups claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, a senior commander and one of the pillars of the Assad clan's rule, as well as Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, intelligence chief Hisham Bekhtyar and veteran army general Hassan Turkmani.

(Reporting by Steve Gutterman; Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Russia says U.S. tries to justify terrorism in Syria | Reuters

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al-Qaeda's American Branch

al-Qaeda is a riddle. Often it is described as a global militant Sunni Islamist organization founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988 as an answer to the Soviet War in Afghanistan; it preaches a strict enforcement of the Muslim Sharia Law. To say the least, its beginnings make it plausible that the CIA looked at it as an ally. Then—out of the blue—this miniscule organization was blamed for the 9/11 events and gained international prominence. Its membership is global, thus gaffes from non-Middle Eastern members may be expected. However, the operative interviewed lives in Iraq; he was unlikely to make such a colossal error.

Imagine an American saying in an interview to the New York Times something like “Californians are Mexican citizens; we want to conquer Mexico and unify Christianity.” It makes as much sense as the al-Qaeda operative's statements made to the New York Times. We are seeing something different here.

Syria 2012 | The Name of the Game: Western Colonialism

Both Syria and Iraq feature sizeable Shi’a and Sunni populations. Westerners must remember that this is just a religious definition; as said before; ethnic Alawis are Shi’a in their religious interpretation. The relation between Shi’a and Sunni is similar to the one between Protestant and Catholic Christians. Each group preaches different interpretations of the same facts; yet, in their core they share the same beliefs. Both Shi’a and Sunni consider the Quran to be divine, and Muhammad to be God’s prophet. The different opinions on more daily matters may cause tensions from time to time, but they are all Muslims. Yet, the al-Qaeda operative said “our big hope is to form a Syrian-Iraqi Islamic state for all Muslims,” and then mentioned attacking Shi’a Iran, as if the Shi’a and other Muslim denominations existing in the area were to be wiped-out, or forced to convert to the Sunni branch of Islam. This is not a proper Muslim preaching, which is always tolerant of monotheistic minorities;

see for example Spain’s Golden Age under Islamic Rule. A more recent example can be seen nowadays in Iran; despite Western propaganda, the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran recognizes Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism as legal religions. Islam is tolerant. The definition of a person recognizing Muhammad as God’s Prophet and the divinity of the Quran as a religious-enemy by a Muslim—as made by the al-Qaeda operative—is unconceivable. He was delivering carefully designed propaganda aimed at Western ears.

This oddity becomes more evident when one searches for hard facts on the al-Qaeda presence and activity in Syria. The New York Times published also that a Free Syrian Army brigade leader in Eastern Syria claimed that he had heard rumors about al-Qaeda fighters, but had never actually seen one. YouTube videos, New York Times interviews: these are Western media stars and not freedom fighters. Apparently, America is preparing a violent, dramatic event in Syria and is preparing the background needed to blame al-Qaeda, the CIA’s best friend. The day after, Hollywood will release the movie version of the event.

http://www.roitov.com/articles/alqaeda.htm