The United States will declare the Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group battling to overthrow Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, a “foreign terrorist organization,” documents showed Tuesday.

The State Department has not formally announced the move to blacklist the group, but posted the declaration in the Federal Register, in a document that described the Al-Nusra Front as an alias of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The Al-Nusra Front is one of the most effective of several armed groups fighting to overthrow the Syrian regime, raising concerns in the West that hardline Islamists are hijacking the 21-month-old revolt.

The group has claimed responsibility for recent suicide bombings that killed scores of people, and has said it hopes to replace the Assad family’s four-decade-old dictatorship with a strict Islamic state.

"I think that other nations that are involved in helping the armed opposition will now take more seriously our concerns about the Nusra front and its expanding influence," one senior US official told reporters in a briefing on the move.

"It is important for countries to understand what al-Nusra is and what it represents."

Tuesday's action came as US officials prepared to attend the Friends of Syria meeting in Marrakesh to discuss the Syria crisis, as rebels push forward on the battlefield and move to unify the political opposition.

Al-Nusra, one of the most efficient fighting groups in Syria, is not part of a new military unified rebel command elected in Turkey over the weekend.

State Dept: "Through these attacks, al-Nusra has sought to portray itself as part of the legitimate Syrian opposition while it is, in fact, an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes. AQI emir Abu Dua is in control of both AQI and al-Nusra."

hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes.

hijack the struggles of the Syrian people


hijack the Syrian people

State Department

getfiscal posted:

cbc had a headline yesterday that was something like "russia admits for first time that syrian regime may be near collapse"

thats what i mean

plus, if there's only forty thousand rebel alliance soldiers and 20k al qaeda, and the islamists are more effective and organized, then they constitute majority of the rebel strength, and the the us is literally supporting terrorism (which wouldn't be bad in any other context)

the only reason they're having trouble controlling damascus and aleppo is because the syrian army is spread so thin against cowardly hit and run insurgents who can't fight a real battle.

Ironicwarcriminal posted:

Guerrilla warfare when it's naxalites or maoists: inspiring, innovative

Guerilla warfare by people i don't like: "cowardly hit and run insurgents who can't fight a real battle"

naxalites run extortion rackets, conscript children, and extort businessmen against a vastly superior military force while the fsa can't even pick a leader and run civic administration despite israel-tier american support

mustang19 posted:

cowardly hit and run insurgents who can't fight a real battle.

wow. uncalled for

U.S. help Assad to stay afloat by sending gangs of apostates from Yemen to assist him
Publication time: 15 December 2012, 22:44

US and Saudis are helping Assad to stay afloat, by sending Yemeni apostates to help the Alawite regime.

According to some analysts, Washington realized a few months ago that it could not stop the Islamization of the Syrian opposition and win over the rebels, most of which are fighting for Islam, writes UmmaNews.

America faces a dilemma: Washington does not want to allow the establishment of Sharia in Syria. At its same time open support of Assad after so many casualties among the Syrian population would put the United States into a category of rogue states - such as Russia.

In this regard, the US is trying to buy time to find an acceptable solution to the "problem of Islam" in Syria, not opposing to the help for the rebels by the Arab regimes, and at the same time using these regimes, in particular Yemeni puppets, to prop up Assad.

Hence it is obvious that all the rhetoric of the US on "the inadmissibility of supported of the Assad regime by Russia, Iran and Lebanon Hezbollah" is just a political rhetoric, designed to hide the support for the Assad regime.

On the submitted video, prepared by the media unit of Jabhat al-Nusra, Manarat Al-Baida, we see confession of five Yemeni officers captured by the Mujahideen in northern Syria.

The apostates confess that they took part in the fighting on the side of the Alawites and arrived in this country at a special request of the Yemeni puppet regime (i.e. de facto - the US).

We would like to point out that Yemeni officers travelled to Syria, probably, through Saudi Arabia. It is not the first time that the Saudi regime helps armed groups of the enemies of Muslims, from among the Shiites, and moves them to Syria.

It is to be recalled that in February, the Saudis allowed to pass warships and a helicopter of Iranian rafidites through the Arabian port city of Jeddah (about 60 km from the holy Mecca) on their way to the Syrian port of Tartus.

This was reported by a Saudi newspaper Arab News. Sending troops and weapons to Assad via Saudi Arabia was called a "friendly visit of the navy ships".

Apparently, the disclose of information about Yemeni officers fighting in Syria on the side of Assad, as well as a clear and unequivocal statement of Jabhat al-Nusra its intention to establish Sharia, prompted the US to put this organization into a so-called "black list of terror groups around the world".

The US statement contained even such ridiculous passages as the following: "The Americans are prohibited to conduct any financial transactions with the group, and the group's assets in the US are frozen".

Therewith, Obama has officially recognized the so-called "National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces", commonly named the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), which was rejected by all Syrian Mujahideen and even Free Syrian Army, as the "legitimate representative of the Syrian people".

Democratic SNC is also recognized by France, Britain, Turkey and the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf.

However, the actions of the US against Jabhat al-Nusra have only intensified anti-American sentiment among Syrian rebels. According to The Telegraph, Islamic rebels defied Washington and pledged allegiance to Jabhat al-Nusra.

A total of 29 opposition groups, including fighting brigades and civilian committees, have signed a petition calling for mass demonstrations in support of Jabhat al-Nusra (aka Victory Front).

The petition is promoting the slogan "No to American intervention, for we are all Jabhat al-Nusra" and urges supporters to "raise the Jabhat al-Nusra flag" as a "thank you".

"These are the men for the people of Syria, these are the heroes who belong to us in religion, in blood and in revolution", reads a statement on widely circulated Facebook pages of the Syrian opposition.

According to The Telegraph, although Jabhat al-Nusra is now positioning itself as an independent organization with its own military command, separate from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), many FSA leaders now recognize its strength and order their forces to cooperate with it.

And on the eve a clip had been posted online, which filmed Muslims marching through the city of Aleppo in support of the Jabhat al-Nusra.

"By calling Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists, the US is legitimizing the Syrian regime's bombardment of cities like Aleppo. Now the regime can say it is attacking terrorists", said Mulham Jundi, who works with the opposition charity Watan Syria.

According to The Telegraph, the strengthening of Jabhat al-Nusra seems to have brought to life the worst fears of the US - the forces of fighting Islamic groups have only risen.

The West attempted to rectify the process of Islamization of armed groups of the opposition at the weekend by backing the formation of a new secular FSA command structure at a meeting in Turkey.

Its new leadership, which sidelines former Alawite commanders such as Gen Mustafa al-Sheikh and Col Riad al-Assad, includes senior figures. Many are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood or even some of the movements that identify themselves as Salafi, but are thought to be men with whom the West "can do business".

Now, the US and EU countries try to persuade the Mujahideen commanders to follow the orders of the secular FSA.

However, as told by one of the Mujahideen to The Telegraph, the US efforts came a bit too late, and that any attempts by the West to intervene in the Syrian Jihad would be rejected:

"We don't support the new FSA military command", said Ous al-Arabi, a spokesman of the Deir al-Zour Revolutionary Council.

"For Deir al-Zour province, they have chosen people who are not representative. Jabhat al-Nusra is the strongest group here and they ignored that, he said. - The people are not going to accept intervention by the West now. You were watching us die, and now when we are close to victory they want to intervene. They are not welcome".

File name: Sirian Issue.eml
Email between David Goulding who is the Business Development Director and Philip regarding a new offer about an operation in syria.

Phil

We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington.
We’ll have to deliver a CW [Crownote: Chemical Weapon] to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have.
They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record.
Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion?

Kind regards

David

among other documents (including Saudi work in Iran!) http://www.cyberwarnews.info/reports/a-look-into-the-britam-defence-data-leak-files/

Daily News reported on this yesterday, but had the article deleted by now (original link). The story's still up in other places though:

US 'backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria, blame it on Assad govt': Report


London, Jan 30 (ANI): The Obama administration gave green signal to a chemical weapons attack plan in Syria that could be blamed on President Bashar al Assad's regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country, leaked documents have shown.

A new report, that contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence, showed a scheme 'approved by Washington'.

As per the scheme 'Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons,' the Daily Mail reports.

Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people.
According to Infowars.com, the December 25 email was sent from Britam's Business Development Director David Goulding to company founder Philip Doughty.

The emails were released by a Malaysian hacker who also obtained senior executives resumes and copies of passports via an unprotected company server, according to Cyber War News.

According to the paper, the U.S. State Department has declined to comment on the matter. (ANI)

I dont doubt it, it makes perfect sense, but I can see where the justification was to pull it. First of all, it's counterfactual to the media narrative (though alot of people know better), but also there seems to be pretty good grounds for plausible deniability. HOWEVER, Britam Defence, Ltd. seems pretty well-connected. From SourceWatch:

BritAm is a UK based firm formed in 1997 that specializes in disaster relief management, de-mining, information technology, security and law enforcement, training, and risk consulting services.

[Overview]

BritAm is a member of the British Association of Private Security Companies, the Defence Manufacturers Association and the Private Security Company Association of Iraq.

BritAm has joined with VIP Special Security Services and the Beijing International School Education Academy to operate in Chinese and other international markets.

[Manager]

General Sir Michael Wilkes: Chairman

[Biographical Information]

"General Sir Michael Wilkes KCB, CBE, retired from the British Army in 1995 as Adjutant General and Middle East Adviser to the British Government. As Adjutant General, Sir Michael was the most senior administrative officer within the Army and a member of the Army Board. During his distinguished career, he has seen active service across the world while also commanding at every level from Platoon to Field Army including commanding 22 Special Air Service Regiment and serving as the Director of Special Forces. Sir Michael is a non-executive director of the AIM listed companies Stanley Gibbons Group and Blue Star Capital plc. In addition, he holds non-executive positions on a number of private companies including Britam Defence. He joined Heritage in 2008."

[Affiliations]

Director, Heritage Oil

Heritage Oil's stakes: "The Company has an exploration appraisal and development asset in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, exploration assets in Malta, Tanzania, Pakistan, Libya and the Democratic Republic of Congo and a producing property in Russia."

Edited by Crow (Jan. 30, 2013 20:15:22)

Crow posted:

Lol i cannot believe we momentarily saw some cracks in the ideological edifice, a malfunction in the hierarchical media organs that never produce war propaganda directed at Middle Eastern nations. LOl why would private security contractors with deep ties to imperial military forces and semi-feudal gulf monarchies attempt to continue the development of the terrorist-mercenary model of insurgency in accordance with profit and foreign policy objectives? LoL how does the world work? How do i get out of my house