The latest exclusive by Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin is entitled “Inside the quiet effort to plan for a post-Assad Syria.” Two days ago, the reliable conduit for all the latest “democracy promotion” news blogged on The Cable: For the last six months, 40 senior representatives of various Syrian opposition groups have been meeting quietly in Germany under the tutelage of the U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP) to plan for how to set up a post-Assad Syrian government. The project, which has not directly involved U.S. government officials but was partially funded by the State Department, is gaining increased relevance this month as the violence in Syria spirals out of control and hopes for a peaceful transition of power fade away. The leader of the project, USIP’s Steven Heydemann, an academic expert on Syria, has briefed administration officials on the plan, as well as foreign officials, including on the sidelines of the Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul last month. The project is called “The day after: Supporting a democratic transition in Syria.” Heydemann spoke about the project in depth for the first time in an interview with The Cable. He described USIP’s efforts as “working in a support role with a large group of opposition groups to define a transition process for a post-Assad Syria.”
Category: UN
Syria has been in turmoil since March 2011. Western countries have intervened in Syria in a high-profile manner since the beginning of the turmoil, first imposing unilateral sanctions on the Bashar al-Assad government, then presenting…
Progressive-left media persist in acting as propaganda outlets for the US-NATO destabilization of Syria, thus placating a politically conscious audience that might otherwise be mobilized against acts of imperialism and violence. The historical record suggests how this is not the first time “Progressive publicists” were used to sell a war. A recent report in the UK Guardian by Charlie Skelton explains that Western news outlets remain willing victims (or accomplices) in a propaganda campaign for US -NATO led Syrian intervention being carried out by skilled and well-financed public relations practitioners. According to Skelton, “the spokespeople, the ‘experts on Syria’, the ‘democracy activists’ … The people who ‘urge’ and ‘warn’ and ‘call for action’” against the Assad regime are themselves part of a sophisticated and well-heeled public relations effort to allow NATO forces to give Syria the same medicine administered to Libya in 2011. “They’re selling the idea of military intervention and regime change,” Skelton reports,
The Russian government has finally caught on that its political opposition is being financed by the US taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy and other CIA/State Department fronts in an attempt to subvert the Russian government and install an American puppet state in the geographically largest country on earth, the one country with a nuclear arsenal sufficient to deter Washington’s aggression. Just as earlier this year Egypt expelled hundreds of people associated with foreign-funded “non-governmental organizations” (NGOs) for “instilling dissent and meddling in domestic policies,” the Russian Duma (parliament) has just passed a law that Putin is expected to sign that requires political organizations that receive foreign funding to register as foreign agents.
…the Islamic Republic has a strong case which could prevent war This observer’s best ever (and shortest) job involved “ sort of” representing Iran before The Hague based International Court of Justice back in the ancient…
The absurdity of the world today is so blinding that we can barely see through the fog to discern what went so wrong. Plans had been spun for years in the dark underground caves by the enemies of man. The Neoconservatives had it all planned, but one factor was missing. Propaganda had already been working its insidious misinformation. The mass media were already more than willing to play the game of Big Money. Americans were thoroughly indoctrinated to toe the line of Big Power. Respect for power and blind obedience were the result of the U.S. educational system. “I pledge obedience to the flag of the United States of America …” Millions and millions of yes-men had been molded out of the clay of propaganda and history books.
Leah Bolger, President of Veterans For Peace, applauded a United Nations Committee this week for raising concerns about the recruitment of children into the U.S. military, the U.S. killing of children in Afghanistan, the U.S….
On July 1, an article titled “Libya and Syria: When Anti-Imperialism Goes Wrong” was published on the North Star website, signed by “Pham Binh of Occupy Wall Street, Class War Camp.” The article argues that…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says his country will never support a British proposal to enact United Nations sanctions as a solution to the Syrian crisis. Lavrov made the remarks on Monday in comments to journalists at the Foreign Ministry before a meeting with Kofi Annan, the United Nations and Arab League special envoy on Syria. He characterized Western foreign policy in Syria as naïve and dangerous and said it failed to take into account the vulnerability of Christian and Muslim religious minorities and the presence of terrorists among the armed opposition.
GEOPOLITICS & ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION IN THE EARLY 21st CENTURY WITH REFERENCE TO THE BALKANS
1. INTRODUCTION Let’s summarize the main determinants of political and social developments of the Northern Hemisphere (and beyond) over the last two centuries. In short, national states were built in the 19th and civic states…