8

Geneva talks delay exposes (again) US links to terrorism

By Finian Cunningham at the American Herald Tribune

As is often the case, you have to read between the lines to parse the truth about Syria –or indeed many other issues –as reported in the Western mainstream media. With a discerning eye the truth can be found. But that’s why it is played down, sanitized, half-told or frosted with banality. Because the truth is pretty shocking.
This week, UN-backed political talks were scheduled to begin in the Swiss city of Geneva between the Assad government and various so-called opposition groups. The talks did not take place as planned on Monday, January 25, and it is unclear if they will even go-ahead this week.
The stumbling block is finding agreement on which opposition groups are to be admitted to the negotiations. The Western news media won’t spell it out. But the main problem resides with the United States and Saudi Arabia both insisting that two militant groups should be part of the opposition to the Syrian government. Those groups are Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) and Ahrar al-Shams (Nation of Syria).
Both are connected logistically and ideologically with Al Qaeda terror groups, including the so-called Islamic State. They are bankrolled by the like-minded Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab dictatorships, and supplied with weapons and training by the American CIA.
The delay in the Geneva talks getting underway is because the Syrian government and its foreign ally, Russia, stipulate that neither Jaish al-Islam nor Ahrar al-Islam are allowed at the negotiating table. Because they are terrorist organizations.
That’s an objective definition for these groups. Their Wahhabi ideology has “justified”brutal violations of Syria’s civilian population, whether Muslim, Christian or Druze, simply on the basis of being labelled as “infidels”. Beheadings, crucifixions, kidnappings, rape are standard means of terror for the militants that Washington and its Saudi ally want at the negotiating table.
The purpose for their inclusion is to expedite Washington’s agenda of regime change in Syria, and has nothing to do with finding a genuinely peaceful settlement.
Jaish al-Islam is linked to the East Ghouta chemical weapons atrocity carried out in August 2013, in which several hundred civilians were killed in a district outside the Syrian capital Damascus. The atrocity was wrongly blamed on the Syrian army and nearly served as a pretext for American military intervention in the Syria conflict. But it was a false flag event aimed at prompting US intervention.
East Ghouta remains under control of Jaish al-Islam although it is undergoing evacuation in a siege-breaking deal with government forces, as are several other locations under the control of militants. On December 25, a Russian air strike on East Ghouta killed the militants’commander –Zahran Alloush.
Alloush had previously called for the “extermination”of those whom he considered infidels. He personally carried out executions during the Adra massacre in December 2013 against Alawites and Druze.
On December 29, four days after the Russian air strike on East Ghouta, the Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir publicly criticized Russia for the assassination of terror commander Alloush.
The other group mentioned above, Ahrar al-Shams, has an equally repugnant track record of violations. It is currently involved in holding the northern Syrian towns of Foua and Kefraya under siege in a reign of terror, where the civilian population are kept as human shields to prevent the Syrian army from liberating the locations.
Steffan de Mistura, the UN envoy to Syria who is convening the talks process, last week briefed the Security Council on why the negotiations were being delayed. The envoy said it was the Saudis who were trying to sabotage the process by insisting on which groups would comprise the opposition. Drawing up negotiating parties is De Mistura’s official mandate, but the Saudis are undermining him, according to a report in Foreign Policy.
None of the Western media outlets will tell you any of this in plain language. For instance, Voice of America reported on the talks impasse thus: “There is widespread disagreement over which opposition groups should take part in the UN talks, and officials say the meetings [this] week cannot proceed until there is a mutually acceptable list of which anti-Assad factions will take part.”
Note how VOA is careful to not specify who the problematic “opposition groups”are and who their backers are. Meaning is sterilized, as in all Western mainstream media outlets.
What the media should be saying is that the political talks on Syria are being held to ransom by the insistence of including terrorist groups in the negotiations. And the people insisting on the terror groups partaking are Washington and its regional Arab allies.
That truth is far too grim to admit to public knowledge and discussion. For such truth would indict Washington as a terror sponsor, answerable to international law. And so the Western media fulfill their assigned function –of concealing damning truth and keeping the public oblivious. That makes them equally complicit in the criminality of their government.


SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN

If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.

For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

8 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
carinaragno
carinaragno
Jan 31, 2016 10:44 PM
leruscino
leruscino
Jan 30, 2016 10:49 AM

Reblogged this on leruscino.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Jan 29, 2016 3:13 PM

Perhaps a new more accurate name for ISIS can be used. ICIASIS.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Jan 29, 2016 3:08 PM

I note Ian Black the Guardians Middle East editor is again making false claims on the poison gas attack against Assad.
“At the second Geneva session, in January 2014, the Syrians met, exchanged abuse and left. That fiasco followed the use of chemical weapons by Assad’s forces and preceded the advances by Isis in Iraq the following summer.”
How compromised is the Guardian now? Why is it being so dishonest?

Anthony Hall
Anthony Hall
Jan 28, 2016 4:58 AM

internet explorer blocks Your Newswire story of US Reporter Blacklisted for story of Bahrain Torturing Shias.

anonymous
anonymous
Jan 28, 2016 12:39 AM

According to Syrian blogger Ziad Fadel, Alloush was killed in an operation of the Syrian Airforce, not the RuAF:
What the rodents did not know was that an agent of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence had penetrated the organization and was delivering high quality Intel to the Syrian military establishment. In fact, as bizarre as this may sound, my source tells me that that agent is the one who made the calls for ‘Alloosh to all the commanders invited to the meeting. The calls the agent made were deliberately sent out over unsecured lines allowing monitors to get the message about the meeting. The decision was made to strike at the location where ‘Alloosh was to convene his conference. As it turned out, it was in ‘Utaayaa. The operation had to be okayed by the Syrian Air Force Chief, Lt. Gen. ‘Issaam Hallaaq and the Director of the Air Force Intelligence branch, Lt. Gen. Jameel Al-Hassan. No problem. It was a “go”.
In order not to alert the rats to the upcoming foray, the bomber which was used to fire 10 air-to-ground rockets described as KAB 500s and OFAB 500s. The primary target was the meeting, and in the videos shown on Pan-Arab television, the first rocket strikes exactly the place where the rodent ‘Alloosh was commencing his exhortation.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=246794&cid=23&fromval=1&frid=23&seccatid=20&s1=1 (Thanks to Khaled Nawaz Al-Nouri)
Read more at http://syrianperspective.com/2015/12/zahraan-alloosh-dismembered-by-syrian-air-force-missile-and-syrian-perspective-successor-may-have-been-killed-in-operation-by-syrian-military.html

Sisyphus47
Sisyphus47
Jan 27, 2016 3:48 PM

Reblogged this on Where do We go from Here? and commented:
That truth is far too grim to admit to public knowledge and discussion. For such truth would indict Washington as a terror sponsor, answerable to international law. And so the Western media fulfill their assigned function –of concealing damning truth and keeping the public oblivious. That makes them equally complicit in the criminality of their government.

leruscino
leruscino
Jan 27, 2016 10:50 AM

ISIS = CIA = USA = ISIS & its exposed for the entire Word to see !
Watch a recent Dutch MSM reporter interview Assad face to face in Damascus & see who you think looks ridiculous ?

Our politicial leaders in the West are blatant War Criminals & we need to do something about it or be complicit ?