The Freedom Watch

Thousands of hungry and scared Syrian refugees enter Iraq

"Faced with brutal violence and soaring prices, thousands of Syrian Kurds have poured into Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, seeking respite from privation and fighting between Kurdish fighters and jihadists. Government forces pulled out of most Kurdish-majority areas of northern and northeastern Syria last year, leaving Kurdish groups to run their own affairs. But Al-Qaeda loyalists, who have played a significant role in the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, see the region as a vital link to fellow jihadists in Iraq and have been locked in deadly fighting with Kurdish militia in recent months. More than 1.9 million Syrians have fled their homeland, with most in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThousands of hungry and scared Syrian refugees enter Iraq

American al Qaeda militant urges attacks on U.S. diplomats

"An American al Qaeda militant has called for more attacks on Western diplomats in the Arab world, praising the killers of the U.S. ambassador to Libya on September 11 last year, a U.S.-based monitoring group said on Sunday. Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million U.S. price on his head, appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to kill ambassadors in the region, citing bounty set for killing the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, Washington-based SITE monitoring group said. The Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda last year offered 3 kg (106 ounces) of gold for the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa or 5 million rials ($23,350) for an American soldier." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmerican al Qaeda militant urges attacks on U.S. diplomats

Top general: Syrian rebels do not support U.S. interests

"US armed intervention in Syria would not resolve the civil war and rebel forces cannot be relied on to back American interests, the top military chief said. Pushing back against calls for air strikes and other action, General Martin Dempsey said in a letter to one lawmaker that US military leaders were not 'reticent, weary or risk averse' but rather mindful of the costs of war and 'pragmatic about the limits of military force.' He said knocking out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s air force was an option but it could drag the United States into an open-ended war. 'Syria today is not about choosing between two sides but rather about choosing one among many sides,' Dempsey wrote." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTop general: Syrian rebels do not support U.S. interests

US photojournalist recounts horror of captivity after escaping al-Qaeda in Syria

"A US photojournalist who escaped from Syrian rebels after seven months in captivity revealed details of his ordeal Friday and spoke of his anguish at leaving a fellow hostage behind. Matthew Schrier, 35, fled the clutches of a rebel group aligned to Al-Qaeda in July after being kidnapped while leaving the Syrian city of Aleppo on December 31 last year. Schrier is one of 15 Westerners who have been kidnapped or who have disappeared this year. The experience of Schrier illustrates the increasing dangers for foreigners and moderate Syrians in the country, which has been ravaged by a vicious civil war for more than two years, with mounting numbers of heavily armed extremist groups on the ground." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS photojournalist recounts horror of captivity after escaping al-Qaeda in Syria

WikiLeaks Party statement on intervention in Syria

"Syria is in the grip of a terrible proxy war with many powerful interests involved: The Syrian government; the Muslim Brotherhood; other Sunni Islamic militant organisations; the United States; the United Kingdom; France; Lebanon; Hezbollah; Israel; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; Iran, and Russia–which has one of its few remaining naval bases in Syria. All of these interests are drawing on various assets to bolster their positions and this includes the United States drawing on Australia. Some seek to topple the Syrian government and replace it with one more amenable to their interests, while others seek to maintain the status quo." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWikiLeaks Party statement on intervention in Syria

Latest War is a Defense Bureaucrat’s Wet Dream

"The Pentagon is in a pickle. It has expensive tastes: war, tomorrow’s gadgets, employing nearly half a million people and a first-rate military with all the bells, whistles and toys. It even likes its cost-cutting initiatives to be expensive. But those things cost money, and there’s no more moolah. So it’s forced to prioritize. Ugh. If only there were some newfangled type of warfare. Something cheaper, cleaner, less taboo… but that posed more of a threat than traditional types of warfare. Then the Pentagon could keep its funding… maybe even increase it. Hrmm… huh?… What’s this? 'DCAF Horizon 2015 Working Paper on Cyberwarfare.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLatest War is a Defense Bureaucrat’s Wet Dream

“Are You Willing to Die So That the CIA . . .

". . . can impose a puppet government in Syria maybe, fifty or sixty years from now, while absurdly calling it 'democracy'? This is the question that should be asked to every new U.S. military recruit now that the neocons have their new war in Syria. As the neocons’ Dr. Strangelove, Charles Krauthammer, pointed out in his latest column, the CIA DID impose puppet-dictators in South Korea, Taiwan, Phillipines, Chile, Brazil, Spain, and Portugal (I would add Iran), and then fifty years or so later the CIA declared 'victory' by calling the latest edition of those puppet regimes 'democracy.'" Continue reading →

Continue Reading“Are You Willing to Die So That the CIA . . .

White House Lies Undermine Its Credibility

"There is an outright lie, like this one: 'It is certainly not the policy of the coalition, of this administration, to decapitate, or to effect regime change in Libya by force.' There is the half-truth or half-lie, like this: 'Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless ‘global war on terror’ — but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America.' Then there is this type: 'There is no spying on Americans, we don’t have a domestic spying program. What we do have are some mechanisms where we can track a phone number or an email address that we know is connected to some sort of terrorist threat.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhite House Lies Undermine Its Credibility

Leaping to Conclusions

"When I read this news item, I was shocked at the flimsiness of it as a justification for the US to attack Syria. What the nation’s political leaders are saying is so irrational, so superficial, so hasty and so ill-considered. I feel as if the country is being run by people lacking in stability of temperament, emotional control, judgment, patience, experience, understanding and maturity. I don’t think they understand how to do good via neutrality. They are men of power, action, and intervention, who do not understand the consequences of their actions. They seem to have made up their minds and now do not want to be bothered by anything that might possibly paint a different picture." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLeaping to Conclusions

Eric Margolis: Who Killed Benazir Bhutto?

"Though I’d been a frequent critic in the past of Benazir and her corruption-embroiled relatives, in recent years I’d drawn close to the embattled leader at a time when she was down and out in exile. Some readers accused me of being 'bewitched' by Benazir. Not bewitched, just deeply impressed by this brilliant, intense, regal woman. I’d just finished drawing up a proposed new political platform for the People’s Party that emphasized independent policy, an end to feudalism, and reconciliation with tribal and Islamic militants on the Northwest Frontier. Two days before her killing, we had been exchanging emails in which I warned her not to appear in public except behind bullet-proof plexiglass." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEric Margolis: Who Killed Benazir Bhutto?