Current Concerns
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3 February 2014 No 2/3 ISSN 1664-7963 Current Concerns PO Box CH-8044 Zurich Current Concerns Switzerland The international journal for independent thought, ethical standards, moral responsibility, Phone: +41 44 350 65 50 Fax: +41 44 350 65 51 and for the promotion and respect of public international law, human rights and humanitarian law E-Mail: [email protected] Website: www.currentconcerns.ch English Edition of Zeit-Fragen Syria: From proxy war to peace or chaos? by Prof Dr Eberhard Hamer The opinion-leading media of the world is about the monopoly (and monopoly 1. The Taliban, revolution fighters and Is- hailed the uprisings in North Africa, prices) for oil and gas. lamic fanatics, infiltrated to Syria by Syria or Ukraine as liberation move- – The participation of Israel in Syria cor- the US (CIA), as well as the enlist- ments. Meanwhile, however, it has been responds to the principle established by ed professional troops of American found that these uprisings did not come the Netanyahu government – as by all war companies (Blackwater and oth- from the countries themselves but were previous ones – to destabilise all neigh- ers), formerly used in the North Afri- brought about, financed and controlled bouring countries in order to protect Is- can countries, can practically not be from outside and that it is all a matter of rael. removed without causing mischief else- foreign economic or financial interests or – The US is the chief financier of the peo- where. Nobody wants them anymore. – as in Syria or Ukraine – strategic power ple’s alleged uprising in Syria, direct- So they have to be deployed in order politics. ed by the CIA which ensures the world- to wear down and destroy Syria. This wide mass propaganda in favour of the calls for another war. What were the interests that brought about “Syrian rebels” and provides them with 2. The Sunni oil dictatorships (Qatar, the Syrian tragedy? modern precision weapons and anti-tank Saudi Arabia) do not just have their – Without the destabilisation of Syria, Is- missiles, heat vision goggles and sniper own oil and gas interests in Syria, but rael and the Anglo-Saxons would not rifles and logistically controls the upris- also Islam and ideological supremacy have dared to venture on Iran respec- ing from the sea, with the help of the interests that they are unlikely to give tively they would not have been able to US Navy. The US and its industry’s pol- up. reach Iran safely with missiles and air- icy against Syria is also directed against 3. Israel does not want peace before desta- planes – even so the US administration Russia (encirclement) and against the bilisation of Syria will be achieved, appears to have currently abandoned influence of Iran’s ally China. also in order to keep clear the way to that plan. In this respect, this pre-war – Russia has both in Syria – a marine and Iran. era was necessary for the fight of the a military base on the Mediterranean. 4. Russia is fighting for its influence in Americans and the Sunni dictatorships As the Russians were out-manoeuvred Syria and therefore supports President (Saudi Arabia and Qatar) against the in Libya, they do not want to be thrown Assad (Western jargon: “the Assad re- Shiite Syria and its ally Iran. For the out again from Syria. gime”) as the allied guarantor of its in- Shiite supremacy Iran, Syria is the link – At the same time the western crusade terests. to its Shiite groups in the Arab world. in Syria has reached the Great Wall 5. China only wants peace in Syria if its Without that link Iran’s influence in the of China. China also aims for the re- influence is backed or enlarged – by Arab world would be weakened. sources of the Middle East. Pakistan Assad. – It is also about gas. So far, an Iranian oil is already under its influence. To the Is peace possible, given all these interests? pipeline passes through Syria. Recently Taliban in Afghanistan the Chinese natural gas deposits have been found in already have long-established rela- Some of the original war goals of the for- the southern Mediterranean – both off tions. Iran is their ally, too. The south eign powers have already been met or shore and on land (Kara) on Syrian ter- of Iraq is de facto already controlled changed: ritory. Qatar has to date exported liq- by Shiite allies from Iran. By means – Israel has achieved its goal of destabi- uefied natural gas by means of a tank- of Syria China is now trying to get an lising Syria and Lebanon in the long er fleet. If the Assad government were influence on the Mediterranean coast, term and is therefore no longer a part- eliminated, Qatar would have the option as well. ner of the peace conference. of transporting the “blue fuel” directly – Just as the US are aiming at encircling – The US already dread their own mer- across Syrian territory to the Mediter- Russia and China and pushing them cenaries. They fear that their victory ranean coast and thus could double its back into their borders (for example by would lead to a new, even more dan- export volume while preventing export means of the US-operated uprising in gerous Islamic system in Syria. They from Iran. Therefore Qatar is funding the Ukraine and the new Pacific offen- are therefore looking for the exit with- the uprising in Syria. sive), both the latter countries want – in out losing face. – For the United States the control of the case of Syria – to stop the US encir- – Turkey has so far stayed in the back- the oil and gas supplies from the Mid- clement for economic, military and ge- ground, but subversively helped the in- dle East means the control of Western opolitical reasons. surgents with weapons, military and lo- Europe at the same time and also the Given these preliminary conditions, the gistical aid. It would like to increase its weakening of Russia. In this respect, in Syrians themselves are only passively in- influence on Syria, but does not want a addition to the geo-strategic motivation volved in the conference on Syria. The radical Islamic state there. for the “corrections by uprisings” in masterminds of the Syrian war would Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Syria there have to agree, but there are insurmount- are also decisive economic reasons. It able obstacles: continued on page 2 No 2/3 3 February 2014 Current Concerns Page 2 Whose sarin? by Seymour M. Hersh Barack Obama did not tell the whole story mined that it is in the national security in- formation – in terms of its timing and se- this autumn when he tried to make the terests of the United States to respond to quence – to enable the president and his case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible the Assad regime’s use of chemical weap- advisers to make intelligence retrieved for the chemical weapons attack near Da- ons through a targeted military strike.” days after the attack look as if it had been mascus on 21 August. In some instances, Obama was going to war to back up a picked up and analysed in real time, as the he omitted important intelligence, and in public threat, but he was doing so with- attack was happening. The distortion, he others he presented assumptions as facts. out knowing for sure who did what in the said, reminded him of the 1964 Gulf of Most significant, he failed to acknowledge early morning of 21 August. Tonkin incident, when the Johnson admin- something known to the US intelligence istration reversed the sequence of National community: that the Syrian army is not “Obama administration altered Security Agency intercepts to justify one the only party in the country’s civil war the available information” of the early bombings of North Vietnam. with access to sarin, the nerve agent that He cited a list of what appeared to be The same official said there was immense a UN study concluded – without assessing hard-won evidence of Assad’s culpability: frustration inside the military and intelli- responsibility – had been used in the rock- “In the days leading up to August 21st, we gence bureaucracy: “The guys are throw- et attack. In the months before the attack, know that Assad’s chemical weapons per- ing their hands in the air and saying, ‘How the American intelligence agencies pro- sonnel prepared for an attack near an area can we help this guy’ – Obama – ‘when he duced a series of highly classified reports, where they mix sarin gas. They distrib- and his cronies in the White House make culminating in a formal Operations Order uted gas masks to their troops. Then they up the intelligence as they go along?”’ – a planning document that precedes a fired rockets from a regime-controlled ground invasion – citing evidence that the area into 11 neighbourhoods that the re- “Administration knew al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated gime has been trying to wipe clear of op- no more than the public” with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechan- position forces.” Obama’s certainty was The complaints focus on what Washington ics of creating sarin and was capable of echoed at the time by Denis McDonough, did not have: any advance warning from manufacturing it in quantity. When the at- his chief of staff, who told the “New York the assumed source of the attack. The mil- tack occurred al-Nusra should have been Times”: “No one with whom I’ve spoken itary intelligence community has for years a suspect, but the administration cher- doubts the intelligence’ directly linking produced a highly classified early morn- ry-picked intelligence to justify a strike Assad and his regime to the sarin attacks.” ing intelligence summary, known as the against Assad.