Sometimes
you have to read between the lines to understand who is doing what in the
world.
But at
other times, the media provides more
than hints.
President
Obama is being reported as having signed a 'finding', which allows US
intelligence agencies to provide 'covert' aid to the rebels in Syria (amazing
how some people seem to accept the nonsense that if a government brands
something as 'covert' then they can 'plausibly' deny doing that very thing.)
The seat of
additional assistance to the Syrian forces fighting Syria's president and
government forces is in Turkey, close to the border with Syria, where a base
for US planes is in place:
A U.S. government source acknowledged that under provisions of the presidential finding, the United States was collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies.
Last week, Reuters reported that, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Turkey had established a secret base near the Syrian border to help direct vital military and communications support to Assad's opponents.This "nerve center" is in Adana, a city in southern Turkey about 60 miles from the Syrian border, which is also home to Incirlik, a U.S. air base where U.S. military and intelligence agencies maintain a substantial presence...European government sources said wealthy families in Saudi Arabia and Qatar were providing significant financing to the rebels. Senior officials of the Saudi and Qatari governments have publicly called for Assad's departure.On Tuesday, NBC News reported that the Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen surface-to-air missiles, weapons that could be used against Assad's helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Syrian government armed forces have employed such air power more extensively in recent days.NBC said the shoulder-fired missiles, also known as MANPADs, had been delivered to the rebels via Turkey.On Wednesday, however, Bassam al-Dada, a political adviser to the Free Syrian Army, denied the NBC report, telling the Arabic-language TV network Al-Arabiya that the group had "not obtained any such weapons at all." U.S. government sources said they could not confirm the MANPADs deliveries, but could not rule them out either.
Better
intelligence, improved communications, coordinated attacks on Syrian government
forces, and weapons to take out the aerial advantage they possess: these are
quantum jumps in the effectiveness of the Syrian rebels.
The civil war is now deepening.
Yay! Now we can topple a autocratic patrilineal dictatorship for autocratic fundamentalist muslim dictatorship..
ReplyDeleteRat, democracy is a messy thing, and wanders who knows where.
ReplyDeleteIf a dictatorship by a minority tribe is replaced by a dictatorship of a majority tribe(s) one hopes those ruled have a better deal. What's happening in Syria is not just tribal but a reorganization of 'states' along religious fault lines, with Iran being squeezed in the process.