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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Washington Post Reveals:
U.S. Coordinates Arms for Syria Militants

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – Armed groups and terrorists battling President Bashar al-Assad's government are beginning to get more and better weapons in an effort paid for by Persian Gulf Arab nations and coordinated partly by the United States, the Washington Post reported late on Tuesday.
The report cited opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.
Obama administration officials claimed the United States was not supplying or funding the lethal material, which includes antitank weapons, the report said.
Instead, they said, the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the Persian Gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure, the Post said.
"We are increasing our non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, and we continue to coordinate our efforts with friends and allies in the region and beyond in order to have the biggest impact on what we are collectively doing," said a senior State Department official, one of several U.S. and foreign government officials who discussed the evolving effort on condition of anonymity, the Post reported.
U.S. contacts with the militants and the information-sharing with Persian Gulf nations mark a shift in Obama administration policy, the Post said.
The newspaper said the flow of weapons, most still bought on the black market in neighboring countries, has significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf states to provide millions of dollars in funding each month, after armed opposition figures warned two months ago that they were running out of ammunition.
The Post cited Mulham al-Drobi, a member of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood’s executive committee, as saying that the group has opened its own supply channel to the rebels, using resources from wealthy private individuals and money from Persia Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The new supplies reversed months of setbacks for the rebels and terrorist groups that forced them to withdraw from their stronghold in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs and many other areas in Idlib and elsewhere.
According to another opposition figure, "large shipments have got through," and "some areas are loaded with weapons", the newspaper said.
Other opposition figures were quoted as saying that they have been in direct contact with State Department officials to designate worthy militant recipients of arms and pinpoint locations for stockpiles.
Terrorists, under the cover of the so-called opposition, have been staging attacks in Syria killing and wounding many civilians across the country.
The violence has entered its 15th month that has killed more than 12,000 people, including many security forces.
The United States has vowed to increase pressure on Assad to step down and the issue will be raised at the upcoming NATO meeting in Chicago.
Recent reports coming from Syria suggested that various enemy plots are underway to spoil UN special envoy Kofi Annan's peace mission in Syria in order to prevent the country from returning to normalcy and pave the way for a regime change.

Rally Against Saudi Annexation of Bahrain

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iranians have been urged to stage rallies after this week's Friday prayers to protest against a "U.S. plan" to annex Bahrain to Saudi Arabia.
The Islamic Propagation Coordination Council, which organizes protests, called on Iranians "to protest against the American plan to annex Bahrain to Saudi Arabia and express their anger against the lackey regimes of Al-Khalifa and Al-Saud".
Leaders of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) discussed on Monday plans to turn the bloc into a union, starting with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
"This dangerous plot is the result of the American-Zionist-Britain evil triangle to prevent popular uprisings spreading into other countries of the region and to control the internal crisis in Bahrain which has been caused by the inability of the Al-Khalifa regime to control the situation," the council said on its website.
"Al-Saud and Al-Khalifa should be aware that with this kind of plot they will not stop the popular movement in Bahrain and the movement of Islamic awakening in the region," it added.
The announcement comes after Tehran warned Riyadh's plans to form a union with Manama would deepen the crisis in Bahrain.
"Any kind of foreign intervention or non-normative plans without respecting people's vote will only deepen the already existing wounds," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
Iranian MPs on Monday condemned the planned union between the two Persian Gulf countries.
"Bahraini and Saudi rulers must understand that this unwise decision will only strengthen the Bahraini people's resolve against the forces of occupation," they said in a letter, referring to the Saudi-led forces.
Saudi forces rolled into Bahrain in March 2011 to boost the kingdom's security forces which a day later crushed month-old protests.
Iran has repeatedly voiced support for the protests in Bahrain and strongly condemned the deployment of Saudi-led forces.
The PGCC was formed in 1981 as the monarchies of the Persian Gulf after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran that was followed by an eight-year imposed war against the Islamic Republic by the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The Bahrain issue is sensitive one to Iran, where the nation still considers the island, controlled by Persia before being colonized by Britain and then relinquished by the former regime of shah in 1971, as an Iranian province.
"The right is reserved for the Islamic republic, as patron and heir to the territorial integrity of Iran, to want the return of a separated province to the Islamic homeland," said Hussein Shariatmadari, the director of the Kayhan newspaper.
"The Bahrainis essentially consider themselves to be Iranians and according to some reports they are eager to return to Iran," he added.
On Monday, the Arab sheikhdoms failed to agree on further integration, with
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal saying that talks on a possible union had been postponed until the next meeting in Bahrain in December.
"The issue will take time... The aim is for all countries to join, not just two or three. ... I'm hoping that the six countries will unite in the next meeting," he told reporters after the two-hour summit.
The union calls for economic, political and military coordination and a new decision-making body based in Riyadh, replacing the current PGCC Secretariat.
But analysts say the plan faces considerable obstacles among Persian Gulf leaders who have jealously guarded their turf.
Neither Oman nor the UAE was represented by their leaders at the summit, where the other "brother rulers", as the Saudi press describes them, were met by the octogenarian Saudi King Abdullah leaning heavily on a stick.
As delegates prepared to meet, protesters burned tires in Manama, sending plumes of smoke over the airport. Some 81 people have died in violence during 15 months of unrest, according to activists.
Oman and the UAE were represented by other senior members of their ruling dynasties at the summit. Persian Gulf analysts say some PGCC members are averse to integration, fearing a loss of sovereignty.
Hardliners in Bahrain however have pushed the idea of a confederation with Saudi Arabia as a way to pull the carpet from under the feet of the opposition.
The ruling Al Saud family enjoys close personal ties with Bahrain's Al Khalifa clan and Saudi citizens regularly travel across the 25 km causeway to Bahrain on weekends.
"Almost everybody can say in principal that they approve of this idea, but as far as I can tell, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are the only two countries that find it particularly attractive," said Gary Sick, professor of Middle East politics at Columbia University.
Analysts say that by joining up with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia would gain more say over its tiny neighbor's security, and that could ruffle feathers among other Persian Gulf states.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, is by far the largest and most powerful of the Persian Gulf Arab states. The UAE and Oman pulled out of a single currency scheme which would involve a Persian Gulf central bank based in Riyadh.
Not all Saudis think integration is a good idea. "If we join with Bahrain we risk importing their problems," said Abdullah al-Shammari, a Saudi political analyst.

U.S. House Mulls New Anti-Iran Resolution

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a new resolution against Tehran which seeks to reduce President Barack Obama’s maneuvering room in dealing with Iran's nuclear energy program.
The resolution, introduced by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has 314 sponsors. The House did not immediately vote on the resolution, rolling over debate until Wednesday.
The resolution claims that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism that seeks to build nuclear weapons.
The resolution also “strongly supports the United States policy to prevent the government of Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, rejects any United States policy that would rely on efforts to contain a nuclear weapons-capable Iran; and urges the president to reaffirm the unacceptability of an Iran with nuclear-weapons capability and opposition to any policy that would rely on containment as an option in response to the Iranian nuclear threat".
President Obama has in recent months made explicit his opposition to "containment" and his preference for "prevention".
Americans for Peace Now has urged Congress members in a letter to amend the resolution to make explicit that it did not authorize use of force to stop Iran's nuclear energy program.
Iran has also vowed a crushing response to any military strike against its nuclear facilities, warning that any such measure would lead to a major war that will spread beyond the Middle East region.
On Wednesday, the Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation released a study that warns that the occupying regime of Israel and Iran could be headed for military conflict.
The study found that Zionist officials were "less worried about Iran using a nuclear weapon against Israel than the greater influence a nuclear Iran would have".
"The Iranian regime views Israel as a regional competitor bent on undermining its revolutionary system," said Dalia Dassa Kaye, co-author of the study and a senior political scientist with RAND.
"Israel, on the other hand, views Iran as its main security challenge, posing serious strategic and ideological challenges to the Jewish state, particularly as Iran continues its pursuit of nuclear capabilities."
The U.S. should work openly with Israel, discourage the use of unilateral action and work to "further isolate, penalize and weaken Iran's capacity to project power and influence throughout the region", the study advises.
The 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which used Iranian tactics and arms, and the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, which "fed Israeli concerns about Iran's rising influence," deepened the animosity, according to Alireza Nader, co-author of the study and a senior policy analyst with RAND.
Despite the growing rivalry, "Iran's ongoing nuclear program is primarily directed toward the United States -- Iran's chief military, political, economic and ideological rival -- more than it is at Israel", the study found.

California Facing Greek-Style Crisis:
Austerity Arrives in U.S.

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has proposed $8.3 billion in cuts to the California budget across education, health care and welfare programs in a plan he says could help close the state's near $16 billion shortfall.
Brown said more cuts should be expected if voters reject proposed tax increases that will be up for a statewide vote in November.
California, the world's ninth largest economy, has suffered financially alongside many other states over the last several years, but because of its sheer size, the state of its economy reverberates not only across the nation, but across the world.
The proposed cuts, as the governor indicates, are across all sectors of public spending, including deep reductions to education, health care, public safety, and infrastructure.
"You've already cut into the muscle of local education, whether it's K-12, community college or the university system," John Husing, a regional economic expert told the San Bernadino Sun.
"Now you're starting to go even further. In addition to the problem, you're going to start to see cutbacks in things like public safety. All in all, it's a catastrophic budget."
The drastic cuts underline California's position at the sharp end of a debt crisis which is slowly engulfing local and state-wide public finances across America. Stockton, an hour's drive north-east of San Francisco, recently became the biggest city in the nation to declare bankruptcy.
For years, California, like many public bodies, has been spending more than it can raise in taxes, and borrowing to make up the difference. The process was exacerbated by the 2008 housing crash, which decimated property prices and reduced income tax revenue.
This year, even with Brown's latest round of cuts, the state will spend roughly $91bn but only raise $83bn. If allowed to continue, it could find itself unable even to service existing debts in a matter of months. "California has been living beyond its means," Brown said. "The USA and its federal government is living beyond its means. Well, there has to be a balance and a day of reckoning."
Steven Wallace, a professor with the UCLA Center for Health Policy and Research, said cuts in the past few years since the economic downturn have meant service reductions that pose a threat to the health and well-being of the elderly, disabled and low-income residents who use public hospitals and supportive services.
"At a certain point, these people are more at risk of falling, or becoming malnourished, or becoming dehydrated or not getting the medications that people need," Wallace said.
"This is one of those cases, where on the surface it seems like we're all tightening our belts, except when these folks don't have any waists left to tighten the notch on their belts."
If voters reject the tax increases in the fall, Brown is proposing $6 billion in additional automatic spending cuts, almost all of which would fall on K-12 schools. Trigger cuts could mean that some districts would have to cut the school year by up to three weeks.
In addition to cuts, Brown proposes state workers take a 5 percent pay cut. The pay reduction would be handled in contract negotiations with the state's public employee unions.
"These cuts have been occurring for a number of years now, and we've gotten to a point where there's little to no social safety net in California," said Steve Smith, a spokesman for the California Labor Federation.
"We continue to go back to the same well in terms of punishing those who provide service to Californians through government work."