Mike Whitney — Assad’s Death Warrant

"Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria.”

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria, Politico

Counterpunch
Assad’s Death Warrant

Mike Whitney

See also

Fort Russ
The top ten western lies about the war in Syria [Part one, Lies 1 through 5]

rt.français, September 9, 2016
Translated from French by Tom Winter September 15, 2016

The top ten western lies about the war in Syria [Part two, lies 6 through 10]

Mike Whitney — Destroying Syria to Create Sunnistan

The US and West taking sides in the Sunni-Shi'ite divide on the side of the Sunni Islamists. Interesting since the people attacking the West are Sunni Wahhabi, SalafI, and Takfiri and the West's major allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the Emirates are also Wahhabi, SalafI, and Takfiri.  And Erdogan and  his party are not only Islamist but also neo-Ottoman. Yeah, "our guys" may be about as far from liberalism as you can get, but, hey, they got the oil and gas, so it's all good.

And it's not just the oil and gas, either.

Ultimately, the war on terror is a public relations fig leaf designed to conceal Washington’s attempt to rule the world. It’s impossible to make sense of goings-on around the globe without some grasp of how seemingly random acts of violence and terror fit within the broader and more comprehensive geopolitical strategy to create a new unipolar world order, to crush all emerging rivals, and to extend US full-spectrum-dominance across the planet.

Not like this is conspiracy theory, either. "Full-spectrum dominance" is publicly declared US foreign policy and the mission of the Department of "Defense.

BTW, while I am opposed to war and war-profiteering, imperialism, colonialism, etc. as libertarian, I understand as realists that countries act like male adolescents with an excess of testosterone. That is just the level of development of humanity at this stage of evolution.

Where I take umbrage is representing this adolescent mayhem as being rational and morally justifiable based on spreading liberalism. It is rank hypocrisy and it is giving liberalism a bad name, just as the hijacking of socialism by totalitarian communism gave socialism a bad name. It is the same thing by the same kind of people.

Counterpunch
Destroying Syria to Create Sunnistan
Mike Whitney

Moon of Alabama — Was The U.S. Involved In The Turkish Attack Against The Russian Jet?

As usual, good info and insightful analysis by MoA.

Again the question arises, stupid or evil?

I am coming down on the side of evil, as in "evil empire."

Moon of Alabama
Was The U.S. Involved In The Turkish Attack Against The Russian Jet?

See also

Russia sent an advanced missile system to Syria on Wednesday to protect its jets operating there and pledged its air force would keep flying missions near Turkish air space, sounding a defiant note after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet.

Underscoring the message, Russian forces launched a heavy bombardment against insurgent-held areas in Latakia on Wednesday, near where the jet was downed, rebels and a monitoring group said.…

President Tayyip Erdogan made no apology, saying his nation had simply been defending its own security and the "rights of our brothers in Syria". He made clear Turkish policy would not change.

Hard to believe that Erdogan would take this position without US backing.

Reuters
Russia and Turkey refuse to back down in row over jet downing
Nick Tattersall And Vladimir Soldatkin

The navigator of the Russian Su-24 shot down by a Turkish fighter jet on Tuesday insists that his plane did not cross into Turkey’s airspace, and says he was given no visual or radio warning before being fired at.

Ambushed?

As well as denying Ankara’s assertions that the plane was in Turkey’s airspace, Murakhtin, who says he knows the mission area "like the back of my hand," also refuted Turkish officials’ claims that the pilots were warned repeatedly.

“In actual fact, there were no warnings at all. Neither through the radio, nor visually, so we did not at any point adjust our course. You need to understand the difference in speed between a tactical bomber like a Su-24, and that of the F16. If they wanted to warn us, they could have sat on our wing,” said Murakhtin, who is currently recuperating at Russia’s airbase in Latakia, northern Syria.

“As it was, the missile hit the back of our plane out of nowhere. We didn’t even have time to make an evasive maneuver.”

As the plane was hit and went down in Syria, the two pilots ejected. Captain Sergey Rumyantsev was killed, with a rebel Turkmen brigade claiming they shot him to death while he was still parachuting.

Murakhtin was extracted in a 12-hour joint operation by Russian and Syrian special forces, in which a Russian marine died.

RT
‘Turkish jets gave us no warning before shooting’ – rescued pilot of downed Russian Su-24

The biggest news of all is this. NATO unity is cracking.

RT
NATO fails to show unanimity on Turkey’s shooting of Russian bomber - reports

The downing of the Russian warplane, which aggressively violated Syria’s sovereignty, is proof to the world of Turkish support for terrorism. This has been going on for years, the Syrian foreign minister said.

RT
Turkey violated Syria sovereignty by attacking Su-24 in its airspace – Syrian FM

Russia is not considering stopping airstrikes on terrorist targets close to the Turkish border after the downing of its plane by Turkish fighter jets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“There is no such legal term ‘further from the Turkish border’. There is the term ‘Syrian airspace’. We would be happy if terrorists kept further from the Turkish border, but unfortunately they tend to stick just next to it,” he said.

RT
Terrorists ‘stick to Turkish border’, Russia to continue targeting them – Kremlin

Russia has deployed a missile cruiser near Latakia and is ready to take down any aerial targets threatening its airbase near the Syrian city, with long-range surface-to-air missiles.

The move was announced on Tuesday after Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber conducting an anti-terrorist mission in Syria. Ankara claims it engaged the warplane over a violation of Turkey’s airspace, but Moscow denies any violation and accused Turkey of aiding terrorists in Syria.

The Moskva cruiser, stationed in Latakia as part of the military buildup, is a 11,500-ton, 186-meter warship serving as part of the Russian Black Sea fleet. In addition to anti-ship missiles, anti-submarine mortars and torpedoes, it has 64 Fort missiles, the naval version of the S-300 long-range air defense system. The missiles can engage targets at a range of up to 150km, which is enough to cover all of southern Turkey from Latakia.

RT
Russian missile cruiser off Latakia coast, ready to destroy dangerous air targets - Defense Minister

• Each and every strike groups’ operation is to be carried out under the guise of fighter jets
• Air defense to be boosted with the deployment of Moskva guided missile cruiser off Latakia coast with an aim to destroy any target that may pose danger
• Military contacts with Turkey to be suspended

Putting Erdogan and Co. on notice, NATO or not. Interpret that as Putin giving Obama the finger.

RT
Russia deploys missile cruiser off Syria coast, ordered to destroy any target posing danger

"S-400 will be deployed on Khmeimim airbase in Syria," [Russian Defense Minister] Shoigu said at a Defense Ministry meeting.…

The S-400 is Russia's most advanced anti-aircraft defense system. It is as an upgrade of the S-300 Growler family, designed and developed by Almaz Antei. The S-400 is employed to ensure air defense using long- and medium-range missiles that can hit aerial targets at ranges up to 400 kilometers. The S-400 is capable of hitting tactical and strategic aircraft as well as ballistic and cruise missiles. The system includes a set of radars, missile launchers and command posts, and is operated solely by the Russian military.

RT
Moscow to deploy S-400 defense missile system to Khmeimim airbase in Syria

Turkey’s downing of Russia jet potential game changer — Press TV interviews editor-in-chief of Zuerst, Berlin

But what we see now is a new escalation; Turkey right now attacked a world power. This changes the game or this might change the game into a horrible situation for the future.

We should not forget that Turkey is one of the most important and, at the same time, the most appreciated NATO member. NATO accepts everything Turkey is doing, especially [everything] Erdogan is doing. Erdogan established an almost totalitarian state under his party leadership. NATO is never doing something against this.

So we can see this attack against the Russian air craft, also not just a Turkish attack, but also it is a NATO attack. So this puts the conflict from the regional level to the world level and that makes the whole incident quite risky.…

This history shows us that Turkey desperately tries to make this conflict wider to involve other powers. This is what they are doing nonstop and all the news coming from Turkey, especially from the Turkish military, are deeply-biased and propaganda news to justify this politics.…

…if Turkey says the air jets were violating Turkish airspace, this might also have to do with the interpretation from Ankara on what belongs to Turkey and what not. Because we see that Turkey is very openly securing or invading an area in northern Turkey. We can the terrorist gangs in northern Syria. I think, without any problem, they are just Turkish proxies; they get their money from Turkey, they get their arms from Turkey, the Islamic State [Daesh Takfiri terrorists] is openly supported by Turkey. So these are all Turkish proxies which are right now occupying northern Syrian territory. So this might be one of the reasons that Ankara might see that is a violation of Turkish airspace because what the Russians are doing right now is directly attacking and weakening Turkish proxies on Syrian ground.…

"Our guy" Erdogan.

Press TV
Turkey’s downing of Russia jet potential game changer: Analyst
Press TV interviews Manuel Ochsenreiter, the editor-in-chief of Zuerst in Berlin