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The buzz in the Middle East media is that the real reason President Obama changed his mind about striking Syria last week was not, in fact, that he is indecisive. Nor was it that the concept of war goes against his grain. Nor that there’s a major division between his personal advisors and government officials. Nor that the Arab League voted against America striking Syria and wanted the United Nations to intervene. Nor even that the British House of Commons pulled the rug out from under him by voting against a British attack on Syria—essentially slapping Obama’s primary supporter, Prime...

Israel is acting to prevent Syrian weapons from reaching Lebanon's Hizbullah and will continue to do so, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, AFP reports. His remarks came two weeks after air strikes near Damascus that were widely attributed to Israel, which a senior Israeli source said were aimed at preventing the transfer of sophisticated Iranian arms to Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shiite ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Netanyahu said the Middle East was going through its most sensitive period for decades, with the conflict in Syria at the center of the turmoil. "We are closely following developments and...

Residents of a Christian village in western Syria have taken shelter in a convent as it was bombarded by al Qaeda-linked rebels. The rebel fighters stormed a hotel atop a mountain overlooking Maaloula to carry out the attack, said a nun, speaking on condition of anonymity from a convent in the village. "It's a war. It has been going from 6am in the morning," she said. Some 80 people took refuge in the convent, which houses 13 nuns and 27 orphans. A protest in Damascus against potential US stikes The dawn assault was carried out by rebels from the al...

<p>HE is 11-years-old, has an AK-47 and he wants to kill Syria's president Bashar al-Assad.</p> <p>Schoolboy Mohammed Afar, who lives in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, is not much taller than the assault rifle he carries, along with live ammunition and a walkie-talkie.</p>

Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists. The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits.

Syrians inside the country say the revolution began with peaceful protests from the poor seeking reforms. The movement now brims with violent terrorist operatives aligned with Al Qaeda and Al-Nasra, including extremist fighters from Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. The mainstream media portrays a false picture of the now-compromised Free Syrian Army. The extremist elements within are not just minority-affiliates. They win the battles, they have the ammunition and the food. They have slowly filled the power vaccuum and they do not fight for a freed Syria, but to establish an ultra-fundamentalist state. American taxpayers have fueled the Syrian Civil War...

Turkey says Syrian forces have shot down one of its air force jets. After a two-hour security meeting, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said the warplane that disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea Friday was shot down by Syria. The statement said the two pilots remain missing. The prime minister's office said Turkey will decide on how to respond to the incident but did not elaborate. Turkey has joined nations such as the U.S. in saying that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down because of the uprising in his country. Meanwhile, U.N. Envoy for Syria Kofi Annan told reporters...

Limited strikes in Syria are not enough, declares Turkey's Prime Minister as the U.S. mulls action in Syria. The goal of any military intervention in Syria should be to topple Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Erdogan said that the limited strikes which the United States is reportedly planning against Syria would not be enough and pushed for a broader military offensive. "A limited operation cannot be satisfactory for us," he was quoted as saying by the NTV news channel. "An intervention akin to that decided for Kosovo must be launched. An operation of...

Obama May Be Walking Into an Impeachment Trap Posted on Aug 30, 2013 Beth Rankin (CC BY 2.0) By Kevin Zeese, PopularResistance This article originated with PopularResistance.org. The irony of the Obama presidency may hinge on whether he attacks Syria. He began his presidency prematurely winning the Nobel Peace Prize and could end it being impeached for starting an illegal war without congressional or UN approval – violating both domestic and international law. Yesterday 163 Members of Congress sent letters to President Obama telling him that under the US Constitution he is required to get congressional approval before beginning a...

Inhumane War in the Name of Humanity Posted on Aug 30, 2013 Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0) Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich. By Dennis Kucinich The following letter was sent by former Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich on the day of publication to about 200,000 recipients. Dear Friend, Eleven years ago I warned America we were about to get into a war based on lies. I led 125 members of Congress to oppose the Iraq War resolution. When I raised questions then, some of our leading Senators, such as John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards voted yes. The media was squarely...

Full Title: Sarah Palin obliterates Obama on Syria: “President Obama’s advertised war plan isn’t about protecting civilians” This is Sarah Palin at her best, taking Obama’s plan to bomb Syria apart piece by piece and obliterating it: “So we’re bombing Syria because Syria is bombing Syria? And I’m the idiot?” – Sarah Palin* President Obama wants America involved in Syria’s civil war pitting the antagonistic Assad regime against equally antagonistic Al Qaeda affiliated rebels. But he’s not quite sure which side is doing what, what the ultimate end game is, or even whose side we should be on. Haven’t we...

"Despite graphic media coverage, American policymakers, journalists and citizens are extremely slow to muster the imagination needed to reckon with evil. Ahead of the killings, they assume rational actors will not inflict seemingly gratuitous violence. They trust in good-faith negotiations and traditional diplomacy. Once the killings start, they assume that civilians who keep their head down will be left alone. They urge cease-fires and donate humanitarian aid." This is an almost perfect description of how the United States has acted over the past two years as it has tried to come up with some kind of policy to end the...

(CNSNews.com) - Like the Obama Administration, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has taken the side of the rebels in Syria’s civil war.

Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria's government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed, a Reuters/Ipsos poll says. About 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria's civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act. More Americans would back intervention if it is established that chemical weapons have been used, but even that support has dipped in recent days - just as Syria's civil war has escalated and the images of hundreds...

Helping them with your tax dollars to unilaterally overthrow Syria’s president and replace with the Muslim Brotherhood that is. via As Syria war escalates, Americans cool to U.S. intervention: Reuters/Ipsos poll | Reuters. (Reuters) – Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria’s civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria’s government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed, a Reuters/Ipsos poll says. About 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria’s civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act. More Americans...

"Al Jazeera, Reuters Published the news of Massacre in Syria one day before the Massacre Happened" Here is an item of extreme importance. If the allegation is true that Al Jazeera published photos of the gas attack and massacre the day before it happened, it is strong evidence that the attack is part of a propaganda campaign to smear the Syrian Government with false allegations and to provide a pretext for Western intervention on behalf of the rebels who are clearly losing the war against the Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The timing of the attack is very suspicious just as UN...

Syrian activists close to the country’s opposition claimed hundreds of people were killed in a “poison gas” attack by regime forces outside Damascus Wednesday. There were several differing reports on a death toll. Activists told Al-Arabiya that 635 people were killed in the attack in Eastern Ghouta, while Reuters reported that 213 died. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the toll at dozens, while the Local Coordination Committees said hundreds were killed. …

Rockets with toxic agents were launched at the suburbs of the Ghouta region early on Wednesday as part of a major bombardment on rebel forces, they say.The Syrian army says the accusations have been fabricated to cover up rebel losses.The main opposition alliance said that more than 1,000 people were killed by the attacks.Activist networks also reported death tolls in the hundreds, but these could not be independently confirmed.It is also not clear how many died in the bombardment of the sites and how many deaths were due to any exposure to toxic substances.In a statement, the army described the...

« CNN on al Qaeda's 'encrypted messaging system' | Main | Bloomberg News on Zawahiri's communications » Link lwj-print-icon-2.jpg Comments (3) ShareThis Free Syrian Army commander celebrates victory with al Qaeda affiliate By Bill RoggioAugust 10, 2013 10:38 AM In this New York Times article on the influx of foreign fighters into Syria (more than 6,000 foreign fighters are now estimated to be fighting with jihadist groups) is a report of a Free Syrian Army commander celebrating the capture of the Minnigh airport in Aleppo with a leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al Qaeda...

The FSA's statement said that three military officers, one of them a colonel, were killed. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) shot down a helicopter and 3 military officers in the helicopter were killed. According to a written statement by the FSA, the FSA's troops shot down a military helicopter with a missile near the International Damascus Airport. The statement said that three military officers, one of them a colonel, were killed. There was no statement or comment from the Syrian administration about the incident.