U.S.-Iran: From War Of Nerves To Full-Scale War?

Source: Voice of Russia

Boris Volkhonsky

Iran – U.S.: game of nerves and muscles

As reported by The Los Angeles Times, The U.S. Navy is upgrading its defensive and offensive capabilities in the Persian Gulf to counter threats from Iran to seize the Strait of Hormuz and block the flow of oil.

Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert told reporters that the Navy will add four more mine-sweeping ships and four more CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters with mine-detection capability. The Navy is also sending more underwater unmanned mine-neutralization units to the region.

On the other hand, according to reports, the Iranians have boasted that they could “swarm” large U.S. ships with their smaller, fast-moving craft. They have also reportedly been laying mines along their coastline.

In January, the chief of the Iranian army warned the U.S. not to send another ship to the Persian Gulf after the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis departed. Another carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, entered the gulf weeks later without incident.

Almost simultaneously, U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order titled “National Defense Resources Preparedness.” The executive order, published on the official White House website, “delegates authorities and addresses national defense resource policies” “in times of national emergency.” Several media have already labeled the document as an attempt to impose a state of emergency in peacetime. In any case, this is definitely a new indication of the U.S. readiness for any course of development in the most volatile region of the world.

And, as if to further strengthen the impression, The New York Times reported on Monday that “a classified war simulation held this month to assess the repercussions of an Israeli attack on Iran forecasts that the strike would lead to a wider regional war, which could draw in the United States and leave hundreds of Americans dead.”

Leon Panetta Confirms U.S. Will ‘Take Action’ if Isreal Strikes Iran

Source: End The Lie
Madison Ruppert

With senior Pentagon officials confirming that they have already been drawing up plans to attack Iran as well as Syria, the continued (and accelerating) buildup of military assets in the region, and now United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta confirming that the United States would backup Israel in an attack on Iran, the unfortunate prospect of an attack looks even more likely.

While he did indeed confirm that the United States would take a role if Israel moved to strike Iranian nuclear facilities – which are not producing nuclear weapons – he would not explicitly explain the extent to which the United States would be involved.

Similarly, in the past Obama has made statements about “having Israel’s back,” but both Obama and Panetta have not been forthcoming when it comes to details or specifics.

“Obviously Israel is an independent country, and they’ll make whatever decisions they make on their own based on what they think is in their national interests,” Panetta said to Arabic news outlet al Hurra.

“If they should make that decision, then obviously the United States will – would take action to protect our facilities in this area and protect our interests in this area,” Panetta stated.

I find Panetta’s correction from “will” to “would” a bit interesting. It might be an innocent slip but it also might be an indication that an attack on Iran by both the United States and Israel is set in stone at this point.

Empire, Power and People with Andrew Gavin Marshall - Episode 10

Source: Boiling Frogs Post
Andrew Gavin Marshall

Road to Tehran

The Western imperial powers seem intent on regime change in Iran. It has been said that, “the road to Tehran is through Damascus,” and such sentiments have been expressed by the King of Saudi Arabia, a ruthless tyrant who represses his own and neighboring populations (such as in Bahrain), and who calls for Syria to show “restraint” against its ‘repression.’ The hypocrisy of the West and its regional allies knows no bounds. The Western puppets, as we know from Wikileaks releases, favor a U.S. military strike against Iran, yet the Arab world as a whole does not. In fact, the wider world – and the vast majority of the global population – supports Iran’s right to nuclear enrichment, but we are told that Iran “defies” the so-called “international community.” From official report, documents, and statements, we know that Iran has no nuclear weapon or any nuclear weapons program, but still, Iran is presented as a “threat.” What is the basis for this threat? What are the intentions and actions of the imperial powers against Iran? How do the sanctions affect Iran and its people? Are we, indeed… on the road to Tehran?

U.S. Sends Four Anti-Mine Ships to Strait of Hormuz

Source: Priosn Planet
Paul Joseph Watson

With the USS Enterprise on its way to bring the number of US aircraft carriers located in the Persian Gulf up to three, the Navy has announced it will send four additional mine countermeasure ships to the Strait of Hormuz as tensions with Iran rise.

“Four additional mine countermeasure ships are being dispatched to the region in addition to further airborne mine countermeasure helicopters, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Navy budget hearing Thursday,” reports Stars and Stripes.

No date has been set for the deployment of the ships, but they will join the USS Enterprise, currently on its way to the Fifth Fleet area of operations, along with the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Abraham Lincoln, both of which are already patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.

“I came to the conclusion we could do better setting the theater,” Greenert told the committee while recounting a recent trip through the waterway on the USS John C. Stennis, which was under the watchful eye of Iranian naval vessels. “I wanted to be sure … that we are ready, that our folks are proficient, they’re confident, and they’re good at what they do in case called upon.”

The deployment of the anti-mine ships follows a warning by US intelligence at the end of December that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were preparing Iranian marine commandos to place mines along the strategic oil choke point.

While a temporary closure of the Strait would send oil prices soaring, analysts believe the US has the capability to clear the waterway of mines within a 24-48 hour period, meaning crude supplies would not be significantly disrupted.

However, yesterday’s news that that the United States and the UK are preparing to release emergency oil stocks within months has led to speculation that the decision on attacking Iran before the end of summer has already been green lighted.

Iran Strike Imminent: Russian Diplomat

Source: The Hindu
Vladimir Radyuhin

Israel will attack Iran this year if a new round of talks scheduled for April fail, a leading Russian newspaper reported quoting a senior Russian diplomat. 

Russian diplomats at the United Nations believe the strike against Iran is “a matter of when, not if,” the Kommersant daily said on Wednesday. 

“The attack will be mounted before the end of this year. Israel is blackmailing [U.S. President Barack] Obama by confronting him with a dilemma: either he supports the war option or will lose the support [of the U.S. Jews],” a high-ranking official of the Russian Foreign Ministry told the newspaper ahead of the U.N. Security Council meeting on Syria on Monday. 

After the meeting, the Russian diplomat said the attack could come earlier, any time after April when the six-nation group holds new talks with Iran. 

The Kommersant quoted the diplomat as saying that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to warn Iran that the talks were a “last chance for Tehran” to avoid the attack. 

The newspaper said that a precise date and location for the talks was still being discussed. Iran on Tuesday confirmed that the talks would take place soon and said Turkey had been suggested as the venue. 

The coming strike against Iran will save Syria from foreign military intervention, the unnamed Russian diplomat told the Kommersant. 

“Americans realize that Israel will attack Iran and it would be too much to have two wars in the region,” the diplomat said explaining Washington’s consent to let U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan pursue his peace efforts in Syria.

U.S. Threatens Asian Region with Penalties for Continuing Iran Oil Purchases

Source: Activist Post

According to the RT report above, Barack Obama is set to impose penalties on India for continuing to purchase oil from sanction-strapped Iran.  A vague new U.S. law seeks also to sanction any country that is not willing to reduce its purchase of Iranian oil. However, India has expressed reluctance to abide by unilateral sanctions that are not legally binding.  India's Oil Minister has stated that they will continue to purchase from Iran as needed for their growing energy demands, while perhaps turning to gold as a means of sidestepping any attempt at imposing sanctions.  This could be merely a face-saving measure, as other players in the region including China, Japan, and South Korea have taken quick measures to reduce imports following U.S. demands.  Once again, the U.S. proves that ally or not, every sovereign nation must cave to Washington's imperial objectives, or else.  This latest move seems designed to further stress the region and force a shift in the oil economy toward Western-controlled interests, as the U.S. is conveniently offering to broker deals with Saudi Arabia and Iraq as a solution to the problem. (Source: Bloomberg)  

The Bloody Road to Damascus

Source: Boiling Frogs Post
Prof. James Petras

The Triple Alliance’s War on a Sovereign State

 

There is clear and overwhelming evidence that the uprising to overthrow President Assad of Syria is a violent, power grab led by foreign-supported fighters who have killed and wounded thousands of Syrian soldiers, police and civilians, partisans of the government and its peaceful opposition.

The outrage expressed by politicians in the West and Gulf State and in the mass media, about the ‘killing of peaceful Syrian citizens protesting injustice’ is cynically designed to cover up the documented reports of violent seizure of neighborhoods, villages and towns by armed bands, brandishing machine guns and planting road-side bombs.

The assault on Syria is backed by foreign funds, arms and training. Due to a lack of domestic support, however, to be successful, direct foreign military intervention will be necessary. For this reason a huge propaganda and diplomatic campaign has been mounted to demonize the legitimate Syrian government. The goal is to impose a puppet regime and strengthen Western imperial control in the Middle East. In the short run, this will further isolate Iran in preparation for a military attack by Israel and the US and, in the long run, it eliminates another independent secular regime friendly to China and Russia.

In order to mobilize world support behind this Western, Israeli and Gulf State-funded power grab, several propaganda ploys have been used to justify another blatant violation of a country’s sovereignty after their successful destruction of the secular governments of Iraq and Libya.

The Larger Context: Serial Aggression

The current Western campaign against the independent Assad regime in Syria is part of a series of attacks against pro-democracy movements and independent regimes from North Africa to the Persian Gulf. The imperial-militarist response to the Egyptian democracy movement that overthrew the Mubarak dictatorship was to back the military junta’s seizure of power and murderous campaign to jail, torture and assassinate over 10,000 pro-democracy protestors.

An Israeli Attack Against Iran "Would Destroy Chance of Peace for Generations"

Source: Global Research
Richard Silverstein

In an interview in The Nation, David Grossman, Israel’s leading novelist and moral conscience, expresses the conviction that Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak want a war against Iran:

…He said he had “a very bad feeling” that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were going to order an attack, even against America’s wishes. “There is a dynamic to all these warlike declarations,” he said.

I’ve written often in the past about David Grossman as an admirable, but attenuated figure.  As a liberal Zionist who is a moral bellwether for Israeli centrist and leftists, but one who is constrained by many of the limitations inherent in those defending major elements of the Israeli status quo.  With Grossman, the glass is always both half empty and half-full.  He is someone always willing to sound the alarm about the worst depredations of the rightist governments who have afflicted Israel for the past decade or more.  But he is also someone who never wants to be too far ahead of his countrymen.  He is one of them, and feels their moral confusion and remains constrained, as they are, about Israel’s predicament and how to get out of it.

The good news is that Grossman has launched an assault on Bibi and Barak’s plan to assault Iran.  He’s gone so far as to accept that an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be far less bad than an Israeli attack on Iran in order to prevent this outcome.

In both Larry Derfner’s Nation interview and Grossman’s own Haaretz op-ed (Hebrew), he’s offered cogent analysis of the thinking of the Israeli leadership.  He’s especially good at placing their mindset in the context of Jewish history:

He [Netanyahu] has this idea that we are the people of eternity, am ha’netzach from the Bible, and our negotiations, as he sees it, are with eternity, with the primal currents of history and mankind, while the United States, with all due respect, is just another superpower like Rome or Athens or Babylon, and we’ve survived them all,” said Grossman. “I’m afraid that this way of thinking might encourage Netanyahu to take the step” of attacking Iran.

Iranian Media Continues to be Attacked by Foreign Entities

Source: End The Lie
Madison Ruppert

A string of attacks on Iranian media continues with reports of jamming signals coming from an unknown location interrupting broadcasts for two hours.

According to Iran’s Press TV, broadcasts of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s (IRIB) international channels on the Hotbird satellite provider were cut out for two hours by these signals.

High-power jamming signals were transmitted on the 12437 MHz frequency from 9:00 to 11:00 GMT on Saturday, March 10, 2012.

During this time, the broadcasts of the IRIB’s international channels were interrupted on multiple occasions.

The channels that were knocked out were Press TV, Iran’s 24-hour English-language international channel along with Al-Alam, Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, Al-Kowsar, along with Sahar 1 and 2 channels.

The jamming of IRIB signals is one of many recent attacks on Iranian media outlets.

According to Press TV, British technicians operating out of Bahrain jammed IRIB channels, again on the Hotbird satellite, blocking provincial channels along with international stations like Press TV and others.

Hackers out of the United States and Israel have also launched cyber attacks on Press TV’s website, according to Press TV.

While this report is not independently confirmed as far as I know, it is far from unreasonable to believe that such activities are taking place given the previous cyber attacks on Iran.

George Galloway: Iran is not a punch bag. This War Must be Stopped Before it Begins

Source: StopTheWarCoalition

George Galloway, speaking at Stop the War Coalition's National Conference on 3 March 2012, spelt out the consequences of an attack on Iran by Israel and the United States. Following the defeat of the Western powers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the British government is sleep-walking into another disastrous war, he said. They will have to be stopped or all of us will pay for their mistake for the rest of our lives.

Netanyahu gifts Obama Esther Scroll

Source: PressTV

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given US President Barack Obama a Hebrew tome containing details of a plot to annihilate the Jews in ancient Iran.

"Then too, they wanted to wipe us out," Netanyahu reportedly told Obama when presenting him with The Scroll of Esther during their meeting on Monday.

The Scroll of Esther tells the 2,500-year old story of a plot by Haman, the minister of Persian king Xerxes, to annihilate the Jewish people living in Persia. But his scheme is foiled by Esther, the king’s wife.

Jewish people read the scroll, known to them as the Megillah, on the eve of the Jewish costume holiday of Purim on March 7.

One of the verses of the scroll says, "And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto them that hated them."

This is while Iranians have always lived in peace alongside the followers of the Jewish faith. Today, Iranian Jews live freely in Iran and even enjoy political advantages which include having a representative in Majlis.

US State Department Hands Terror-Cult US Base in Iraq

Source: Land Destroyer Report
Tony Cartalucci

Unimaginable Treason at the Highest Levels of US Governance.

In an unbelievable act of high treason and overt criminality, the US State Department, headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has finalized arrangements to move the US State Department-listed foreign terror organization, Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), into the former US military base "Camp Liberty' in Iraq.

Effectively turning the camp into a living monument of desecration to the memories of 6,000+ US troops killed over the last 10 years of the fraudulent "War on Terror," the US State Department is also appropriating US taxpayers' money to make upgrades to the camp to accommodate the terrorist organization. In Foreign Policy Magazine's article, "Are the MEK’s U.S. friends its worst enemies?," it is indicated that up to 3,000 terrorists are expected to move into the new site with the first two convoys already arriving at the camp over the last month.

Image: Rudy Giuliani consorting with MEK's political wing leader Maryam Rajavi in Paris, France. Giuliani is best known for his role playing a strong supporter for the "War on Terror" and his incessant fear mongering verses "Islamic extremists." In real life, he coddles listed terrorist organizations in direct violation of US law and even lobbies for them.

....

Amazingly, MEK's support base not only includes the US State Department, but also the United Nations, as well as a lobbying front including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Howard Dean, Tom Ridge, John Lewis, Ed Rendell, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, retired General Wesley Clark, Lee Hamilton who farcically oversaw the 9/11 Commission, former US Marine Corps Commandant General James Jones, and Alan Dershowitz. There are also members of the British Parliament including David Amess of the Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, speaking on MEK's behalf.

It turns out that MEK's lobbying representatives are at odds with the US State Department and the United Nations, and would like to see MEK maintain their current base of operations at Iraq's Camp Ashraf instead of being moved to Camp Liberty where conditions are alleged to be "substandard." Their lobbying efforts include full page adds in national newspapers including the Washington Post and the New York Times, as well as attending conferences in Paris, France where MEK's political wing is based.

China Votes Against an Excuse for War

Source: China.org.cn
Qu Xing - President of the China Institute of International Studies

In February, China voted twice against a UN draft resolution which strongly condemned the Syrian President Bashar Assad's cruel crackdown on domestic uprising and calls for his resignation.

This action is a comprehensive judgment that considers the basic principles of the Charter of the United Nations, basic guidelines of contemporary international relations, China's national interests, and bilateral relations between China and the related countries.

In fact, China appreciates the Arab League's peace efforts; the reason why China voted against the draft resolution is related to its certain sections: they would provide a foundation for Western countries to launch a future Syrian war.

For example, the draft resolution agreed to solve the issue according to the schedule of the Arab League, and reserved the right to take further action if the draft cannot be carried out. But that hides acquiescence for free interpretation which would be nothing less than starting the vicious dominoes of foreign armed intervention in the Syrian conflict.

Libya has served a good example in this regard, where the Security Council resolutions had been overstepped and the Security Council authorization had been abused.

During the six-month war in Libya, at least 25,000 civilians lost their lives, and no one can tell the exact number of the people injured. If the Libyan model is applied to the case of Syria, a similar disaster will undoubtedly occur, and the wounds of war will be difficult to heal.

Huge Oil Field Discovered in Southern Iran

Source: PressTV

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has announced the discovery of a huge oil field with considerable crude reserves in southern Iran.

NIOC's Director for Exploration Seyyed Mahmoud Mohaddes said Saturday that an exploratory oil well has already been drilled in the area.

"The newly-discovered oil field must be considered among the biggest fields ever discovered in Iran," he said.

The Iranian official also added that initial tests have indicated the high quality of the oil in the new field.

Mohaddes went on to say that the details about two or three more oil fields will be announced in the near future.

A total of 18 heavy and extra heavy oilfields have so far been discovered in Iran, including Ferdowsi oil field in the Persian Gulf, which is one of the country's biggest heavy oil fields with proven reserves of more than 31 billion barrels.

Iran's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels with about 140 billion barrels of extractable oil. Moreover, heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.

Iran is the second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia among the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

US and Israel Plan Attacks on Iran

Source: Bloomberg

Obama administration officials are escalating warnings that the U.S. could join Israel in attacking Iran if the Islamic republic doesn’t dispel concerns that its nuclear-research program is aimed at producing weapons. 

Four days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Washington, Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz told reporters the Joint Chiefs of Staff have prepared military options to strike Iranian nuclear sites in the event of a conflict. 

“What we can do, you wouldn’t want to be in the area,” Schwartz told reporters in Washington yesterday. 

Pentagon officials said military options being prepared start with providing aerial refueling for Israeli planes and include attacking the pillars of the clerical regime, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its elite Qods Force, regular Iranian military bases and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Pentagon plans are classified. 

“There’s no group in America more determined to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon than the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Army General Martin Dempsey told the House Budget Committee yesterday. “I can assure you of that.” 

Separately, unnamed U.S. officials told the Washington Post that U.S. military planners are increasingly confident that sustained attacks with the Air Force’s 30,000-pound (13,608 kilograms) “bunker-buster” bombs could put Iran’s deeply buried uranium-enrichment plant at Fordo out of commission.

Iran War Propaganda, World Bank Wants Control of the Sea, & Stratfor Emails

Source: The Intel Hub

The Intel Hub News Brief with Joe Joseph and special guest Madison Ruppert of http://endthelie.com. Topics covered include the buildup to a possible war with Iran, the World Banks call to control the high seas, stratfor emails and its connection to Israel and Iran.

'Total War State': US Introduces New Security Law

Source: RT

The National Defense Authorization Act, which will allow American authorities to detain US citizens indefinitely without trial, comes into effect Thursday. American film director Sean Stone told RT it's a step on the path towards “a total war state.”

­Stone says that instead of addressing domestic economic concerns, Washington is trying “to build a martial state, using Iran as the terrorist enemy or threat.” He adds that America is now “in a state of martial law.”

Stone went on to tell RT that the new legislation was passed in a dangerous time, when “Syria is being destabilized and Iran, on its border, is being threatened by Israel and America.” 

But another war abroad, Stone asserts, will bring tremendous consequences because, “if you attack Iran, Hezbolah and Hamas will unleash on Israel – which will bring America and potentially Russia into the equation.”

Russian Expert: Azerbaijan’s Territory May Be Used To Strike Iran

Source: PanArmenian.net

Azerbaijan’s Milli Mejlis held debates on amending the Constitution and renaming the country into the Republic of Northern Azerbaijan, a Russian expert says.

“Supporters of this idea insist that today’s Azerbaijan is just a part of the Azerbaijani state that used to exist before and was divided by Russia and Iran in the 19th century; they claim two thirds of this state still remain within Iran’s territory, and this is historic injustice,” said Alexander Krylov, chairman of the Scientific Society of Caucasian studies experts, leading research scientist of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations according to Analitika.at.ua.

“Apparently, Tehran views such statement as a bellicose action and a direct challenge to Iran. Debates in Azerbaijan’s Milli Mejlis further complicated the tensions between the neighbouring countries. Baku blames Iranian government for activities undermining Azerbaijani state, in particular, through the Turkic-language Iranian 2A TV channel,” the expert said.

“Azerbaijan’s authorities and politicians are particularly indignant over the channel’s claims regarding Azerbaijani statehood being groundless, and Azerbaijan being a historic part of Iran. Activists of Azerbaijan’s Islamic party charged with subversive activities against Azerbaijan in favor of Iran were arrested recently in Azerbaijan.

So, a question emerges: how far can this conflict extend? In terms of legislation, renaming of a country requires amending the Constitution; to do this, majority of Azerbaijan’s citizens should vote for it during a nationwide referendum. So far, nothing is said about a referendum. Therefore, the problem is not the renaming of Azerbaijan but something else. Obviously, Baku uses development of this issue as a lever of political pressure on Iranian government and as a method of solving its own domestic problems,” Krylov said.

According to the expert, in case of a military resolution of the Iranian issue the U.S. and Israeli politicians are insisting on for many years, Azerbaijan’s territory may be used for striking Iran.

“In this case, the current propaganda against Iran is likely to be a part of preparation for this scenario. U.S. may attempt to use Azerbaijan as a new version of Afghan “Northern Alliance”; also, in case of large-scale changes in the borders and establishment of new countries in the regions (i.e. Kurdistan), Azerbaijan may receive vast territories,” the Russian expert stated.

Russia Upgrades Syrian Radars to Warn of U.S., Israeli Attack

Source: Ria Novosti

Russia has modernized two radars in Syria and Lebanon that could threaten U.S. or Israel’s ability to launch a surprise attack against Syria and Iran, Israeli DEBKAfile portal said on Monday.

The range of the Jabal Al Harrah electronic and surveillance station south of Damascus has been increased to cover all parts of Israel and Jordan, the Gulf of Aqaba and northern Saudi Arabia.

The range of a Russian-equipped Syrian radar stationed on Lebanon’s Mount Sannine has also been extended, and the data-sharing capability of both radars has been improved.

As a result, the radars are now capable of tracking “U.S. and Israeli naval and aerial movements in the Eastern Mediterranean up to and including Cyprus and Greece.”

“Moscow decided to boost its radar tracking and surveillance reach for Iran’s benefit in response to a complaint from Tehran that it could not longer count on Russia for a real-time alert on an incoming U.S. or Israeli military strike, because those resources were stretched to the limit in support of the Assad regime,” DEBKAfile said citing its sources in the U.S. military.

Russia is alarmed by the growing threat of a military strike on Iran, which is increasingly reported as being an option under consideration by Israeli and U.S. military planners as Tehran continues to move ahead with its uranium enrichment program.

Syria: Clinton Admits US On Same Side As Al Qaeda To Destabilise Assad Government

Source: Global Research
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky and Finian Cunningham 
 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that Al Qaeda and other organizations on the US “terror list” are supporting the Syrian opposition.

Clinton said: “We have a very dangerous set of actors in the region, al-Qaida [sic], Hamas, and those who are on our terrorist list, to be sure, supporting – claiming to support the opposition [in Syria].” [1] (Click here to watch video)

Yet at the same time, in the above BBC interview the US Secretary of State repeats the threadbare Western claim that the situation in Syria is one of a defenceless population coming under “relentless attack” from Syrian government forces.

There is ample evidence that teams of snipers who have been killing civilians over the past year in Syria belong to the terrorist formations to which Clinton is referring to.

As Michel Chossudovsky points out in a recent article: “Since the middle of March 2011, Islamist armed groups – covertly supported by Western and Israeli intelligence – have conducted terrorist attacks directed against government buildings, including acts of arson. Amply documented, trained gunmen and snipers, including mercenaries, have targeted the police, armed forces as well as innocent civilians. There is ample evidence, as outlined in the Arab League Observer Mission report, that these armed groups of mercenaries are responsible for killing civilians. 

While the Syrian government and military bear a heavy burden of responsibility, it is important to underscore the fact that these terrorist acts – including the indiscriminate killing of men, women and children – are part of a US-NATO-Israeli initiative, which consists is supporting, training and financing  ‘an armed entity’ operating inside Syria.” [2]

The admission at the weekend by Hillary Clinton corroborates the finding that armed groups are attacking civilians and these groups are terroristic, according to US own definitions, and that the situation in Syria is not one of unilateral state violence against its population but rather is one of a shadowy armed insurrection.

Clinton’s admission retrospectively justifies the stance taken by Russia and China, both of which vetoed the proposed UN Security Council Resolution on 4 February, precisely because that proposal was predicated on a spurious notion that the violence in Syria was solely the responsibility of the Al Assad government.