FG

The very latest from Syria

by FG on Wed Aug 08, 2012 08:18 AM PDT

This just in from The Guardian: 

Rebels claim to have destroyed five tanks in Aleppo

The rebel Tawheed Brigade (Unity Brigade), which is leading the fight in Aleppo, claims to have destroyed five tanks in Salahedin.

It also claimed to have destroyed a MiG jet near Aleppo's airport.

In an update on its Facebook page it dismissed reports that it had fled Salahedin as "psychological warfare".

It offered no proof to support the claims.

The Guardian's Martin Chulov, who is close to Salahedin said the battle is continuing. In a brief call to our news desk, a few moments ago, he denied government claims that rebels had been driven from the area. 

To Poor Soosan

by FG on Wed Aug 08, 2012 08:14 AM PDT

I'm sorry you are disappointed by the prospect of Assad's murderous regime going down and likely effect it will have in encouraging Iranians do what Syrians have done.   But facts are facts and can't be helped.  

Anyone who would accuse the Syrian rebels of being composed exclusively of Al Queda extremists (the Assad line) surely loves mullah rule though in that regard you are out of step with the Iranian people. 

In Iran, is Alwaz ripe for Al Queda after Assad falls?

by FG on Wed Aug 08, 2012 08:07 AM PDT

News Item: Ahwaz MP Shokrkhoda Mousavi has claimed that 95% of the population in the area are unemployed.  Yet the region produces much of Iran's oil, the main source of its revenue.

ANALYSIS:

Of course any regional or ethnic revolution by itself won't succeed  because the regime can concentrate its forces and protect its borders.  A nationwide revolution will change that.  Once Assad is gone and Iran's people rise up, revenge-minded  jihadis are likely to flock to Ahwaz and Lebanon.  The new Syrian government will be glad to send them off.

These Islamists are Bad Guys but they are good fighters who would be fighting Bad Guys.  I'd imagine the Iranian people would tolerate their presence until the Greater Enemy is ousted.  Afterward they'll address the problem. 

Compared to 2009, the Islamic Republic will be much riper for revolution.  It will also be more vulnerable with Assad gone and its economy in bad shape.  Any inability to hang on to its oil fields would be very damaging with so much else going on.

Breaking news my foot !!!

by Soosan Khanoom on Wed Aug 08, 2012 07:57 AM PDT

What is new about creating another Afghanestan in that neck of the woods?What is new about supporting and providing arms for the Al-Qaida like rebels to fight Russians?  

Oh please ....give us a break from all your breaking news.  Watch American got talent show or the dancing with the stars or something ... There are more breaking news there than in the Syria!!!!!!

Russia denies any such general exists

by Frashogar on Wed Aug 08, 2012 07:57 AM PDT

A source with Russian law enforcement and security agencies has branded
as provocation and invention reports by the Free Syrian Army that a
Russian general identified as Vladimir Kodzhiyev had been killed in
Syria.

"A man with such a name

holding the rank of general has never existed, and therefore reports on his death can only be nonsense and invention," he said.

//english.ruvr.ru/2012_08_08/Russia-denies-death-of-Russian-general-in-Syria/

To Just an Iranian re: Assad's absence

by FG on Wed Aug 08, 2012 07:12 AM PDT

As in the case of Romney's tax returns, there is a simple way to clear up everything: Assad could show up and speak live while Romney could show his tax returns and end speculation.

 

The suspects (Iran & Russia) can't get their stories straight

by FG on Wed Aug 08, 2012 07:08 AM PDT

THE RUSSIANS:First they said "no such general exists.  Now the general is "on vacation near Moscow."

IRAN'S ISLAMIC REPUBLIC:  

First Story: "the pilgrims were innocent civilians."

Later:  Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, flying back from Turkey, reportedly told Iranian reporters that “some” of the Iranian hostages in Syria seized last weekend were “retired” staff of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, the state Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Latest:  Hours later an unnamed foreign ministry official denied the minister’s remarks on Iran’s Arabic language Al-Alam state television channel, saying there “was no truth in any reports linking the kidnapped Iranians in Syria to the Revolutionary Guards.”

HAVEN'T WE SEEN THIS BEFORE? 

I'm reminded of all the different stories Khamenei's regime put out about who killed Neda (It was her fiance.  No, it was the doctor who tried to save her.  No it was the Greens who killed her because they needed a martry, etc. 

PHOTOS CONFIRM FSA IS TRAINING ON SAM ANTI-AIR MISSILES 

 

Photographic evidence has emerged backing reports that Syrian rebels have obtained surface to air missiles, the New York Times reports. Its At War blog has unearthed a picture showing an activists with a a heat-seeking, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile.

Check this out

by JustAnIranian on Wed Aug 08, 2012 06:59 AM PDT

//www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/07/1117640/-...

What do you think of this? 

I am beginning to think that Bashar Assad is dead - or ... or what?! 

Please not that 'Again there is no audio' 

More evidence that Iran's pilgrims were Real Bad Guys

by FG on Wed Aug 08, 2012 08:09 AM PDT

They booked through a Revolutionary Guards agency that was NOT open to the public.  You must be IRCG or Basilj, according to the Wall Steet Journal.

THE WSJ quotes an employee of the tour company as saying: "Everyone on this trip was either a Guard or a Basij militia. This wasn't a regular tour group."

MY QUESTION:

With so much discontent at home and with Syria embroiled in war, how plausible is it that members of the IRCG and Basilj would pick this time for a religious pilgrimage to Syria? 

What the world is learning from the death of a Russian general

by FG on Wed Aug 08, 2012 06:32 AM PDT

The death in Aleppo of  Vladimir Petrovich Kojyev and the capture of phony Iranian pilgrims has shown the world the amazing extent to which Russia and Iran have assisted Assad’s crimes against his own people.  Given the risks involved, even I'm surprised they would go this far.   The chances of exposure were too great.  Now the worst has happened.

Lying like mullahs, the Russians claim“The general never existed” but they'll have a hard time sticking to that story.  A Free Syrian Army video offers
compelling evidence: ID’s of
the dead general and his bodyguard, embarassing documents and a photo of the general smiling alongside two other Russian generals in full uniform.

You’ll find that video in today’s Syria roundup at Enduring America:

//www.enduringamerica.com/home/2012/8/8/egypt...

FOUR PUZZLING QUESTIONS HAVE NOW BEEN ANSWERED

1. Why was Assad so confident he could get away with such crimes?  

2. Why did he persist despite so many setbacks and defections?  

3. How deeply did Iranian and Russian involvement in Assad's crimes go? 

4. From whom did Assad get the idea for those scorched earth tactics?

HINT: "Pulverize from afar" tactics were first used by Putin to finally subdue Chechnya.  In advising Assad, Putin forgot a key variable. Russian troops were not asked to destroy their own cities and torture and murder civilians with whom they could empathize.  

IRAN HALFWAY ADMITS PILGRIMS WERE NOT EXACTLY PILGRIMS

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has acknowledged that some of the 48 Iranians abducted near Damascus on Saturday are retired members of the Revolutionary Guards and Army and others "were from other ministries"; however, he denied any still had a military or official role and said they were on pilgrimage.

IN IRAN: LIKELY REPERCUSSIONS FROM THIS WEEKS NEWS

1. The Russian's general's death supports allegations that the Iranian pilgrims were not pilgrims.

2. Already isolated from neighbors and the world by its covert schemes, how will the IRI ever convince neighbors it can be trusted in any way?  

2. Charges that Khamenei used Lebaon's Hezbollah to stomp his own people have been reinfored.  It's clear that Bad Guys will assist one another in event of domestic discontent.  Hezbollah may not be able to help next time once Assad falls.  It surely has been involved in aiding the dictator.

3. Having replaced Israel as the "Most Hated Enemy of the muslim world," can Putin afford to help Khamenei now if trouble brakes out in Iran?

4. If a much better armed Assad could not stop a determined people desite this kind of help how can Khamenei survive if Iranians rise up as fiercely?