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Pistol

Mossad, CIA and Blackwater Operate in Syria - Report

Members of the Free Syrian Army
© AFP Photo / STR / Ahmed JadallahMembers of the Free Syrian Army patrol an area in Qusayr, 15 kms (nine miles) from Homs.
A security operation in Homs reveals Mossad, CIA and Blackwater are involved in the military violence in this part of Syria, as over 700 Arab and Western gunmen and Israeli, American and European-made weapons were detained in Baba Amr district.

­Syrian security forces got yet further proof of Western powers' military involvement in Syria's internal conflict, reports Al-Manar, a news agency, affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group and political party.

Around 700 gunmen were recently arrested in the former rebel stronghold of Babar Amr.

"The captured gunmen held Arab nationalities, including Gulf, Iraqi, and Lebanese. Among them were also Qatari intelligence agents and non-Arab fighters from Afghanistan, Turkey, and some European countries like France," the agency quotes Syrian expert in strategic affairs Salim Harba as saying.

Harba also confirmed to the agency that "a coordination office was established in Qatar under American-Gulf sponsorship. The office includes American, French, and Gulf - specifically from Qatar and Saudi Arabia - intelligence agents, as well as CIA, Mossad, and Blackwater agents and members of the Syrian Transitional Council."

War Whore

British, Qatari troops already waging secret war in Syria


British and Qatari troops are directing rebel ammunition deliveries and tactics in the bloody battle for Homs, according to an Israeli website known for links to intelligence sources.

­Four centers of operation have been established in the city with the troops on the ground paving the way for an undercover Turkish military incursion into Syria.

The Debkafile site said the presence of British and Qatari troops in Homs topped the agenda of Tuesday's talks between Assad's officials and head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov.

Qatar makes little secret of supporting the Syrian opposition with cash, arms and political support. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani said in mid-January he is ready to send troops to Syria to stop the violence there. Britain insists it is not planning any military action against the Assad regime.

The scenario painted by the report closely resembles Libya's collapse into anarchy. UN Security Council resolution 1973 forbade any ground troops from intervening in Libya while creating a pretext for NATO to launch a bombing campaign against Muammar Gaddafi's troops.

Comment: From the horse's mouth:
British and Qatari special operations units are operating with rebel forces under cover in the Syrian city of Homs just 162 kilometers from Damascus, according to debkafile's exclusive military and intelligence sources. The foreign troops are not engaged in direct combat with the Syrian forces bombarding different parts of Syria's third largest city of 1.2 million. They are tactical advisers, manage rebel communications lines and relay their requests for arms, ammo, fighters and logistical aid to outside suppliers, mostly in Turkey.
Flashback: NATO: At Least 10,000 'Lost Missiles' in Libya


Pistol

Weapons, Ammunition, Computers, Advanced Communication Devices and Fake Passports Seized in Homs

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Authorities seized large amounts of weapons, computers and modern communication devices, speakers and signal relay equipment in Homs governorate.

The seized weapons included several kinds of machineguns, German sniper rifles, RPGs and anti-tank launchers, mines, night vision goggles, protective masks, handmade explosive devices with their detonators, pistols and pistol suppressors.

The authorities also seized stolen and fake passports, large amounts of ammunition, military uniforms and dynamites.

A number of terrorists killed, other injured as an explosion hit them while preparing explosives in Idleb

A number of terrorists were killed and other injured as an explosion hit them while they were preparing explosives at one of the armed terrorist group's dens in Maar Shmaren, Maarat al-Numan.

SANA reporter in Idleb quoted an official source as saying that the terrorists were hiding inside a factory for preparing explosives at the said town, a number of them were killed and others injured by an explosive they were preparing.

Handcuffs

13 French officers being held in Syria

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© AP Photo/Rodrigo AbdFree Syrian Army fighters gather near a building hit by a Syrian Army tank in Idlib, north Syria, Sunday, March 4, 2012.
Beirut - Around 13 French officers are being held by Syrian authorities in Syria, sources have confirmed to The Daily Star, a claim that the French Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm.

Sources said the group is being held in a field hospital in the city.

It was not clear why the officers were in Syria, when they had arrived or whether they were part of a larger contingent in the city.

Strategic Homs was targeted in a 26-day shelling bombardment by the Syrian Army, which overran the city where anti-Assad protests and Free Syrian Army operations have been focused.

French journalist Remi Ochlick and American Marie Colvin were killed in one shelling attack on a makeshift media center on Feb 22. French reporters Edith Bouvier, who was wounded in the attack, and William Daniels were among four journalists subsequently holed-up in the neighborhood for one week, before being smuggled to Lebanon.

Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Drones in Texas and Tanks in Tampa: Inside the Out-Of-Control Weaponized Homeland Security State

Reaper Drone
Government budgets at every level now include allocations aimed at fighting an ephemeral "War on Terror" in the United States.

At the height of the Occupy Wall Street evictions, it seemed as though some diminutive version of "shock and awe" had stumbled from Baghdad, Iraq, to Oakland, California. American police forces had been "militarized," many commentators worried, as though the firepower and callous tactics on display were anomalies, surprises bursting upon us from nowhere.

There should have been no surprise. Those flash grenades exploding in Oakland and the sound cannons on New York's streets simply opened small windows onto a national policing landscape long in the process of militarization -- a bleak domestic no man's land marked by tanks and drones, robot bomb detectors, grenade launchers, tasers, and most of all, interlinked video surveillance cameras and information databases growing quietly on unobtrusive server farms everywhere.

The ubiquitous fantasy of "homeland security," pushed hard by the federal government in the wake of 9/11, has been widely embraced by the public. It has also excited intense weapons- and techno-envy among police departments and municipalities vying for the latest in armor and spy equipment.

Coffee

Best of the Web: LulzSec hackers leader Sabu was working for us, says FBI

Hector Xavier Monsegur
Hector Xavier Monsegur, AKA Sabu, who is allegedly the mastermind of hacking group LulzSec
Hacker - real name Hector Xavier Monsegur - helped US authorities bring charges against five others

The world's most notorious computer hacker has been working as an informer for the FBI for at least the last six months, it emerged on Tuesday, providing information that has helped contribute to the charging of five others, including two Britons, for computer hacking offences.

Hector Xavier Monsegur, an unemployed 28-year-old Puerto Rican living in New York, was unmasked as "Sabu", the leader of the LulzSec hacking group that has been behind a wave of cyber raids against American corporations including Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the intelligence consultancy Stratfor, British and American law enforcement bodies, and the Irish political party Fine Gael.

Magic Wand

Best of the Web: Santorum: 'Higher-income people don't have to pay taxes'

Rick Santorum
© CNN
Republican presidential Rick Santorum is advising President Barack Obama not to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans because "higher-income people don't have to pay taxes if they don't want to."

"Once we defeat Barack Obama this economy will start turning around," the former Pennsylvania senator told a crowd in Miamisburg, Ohio. "Because you'll know you have someone in there who's going to unshackle businesses, reduce rates, not increase them. The president's promised increased taxes if he's re-elected."

"All he wants to do to solve the deficit problem is increase taxes on people, particularly higher-income people," Santorum continued. "You see, that sounds very populist. Go after the 1 percent. It's interesting because the British just did this. They went after the 1 percent in Britain. They dramatically increased taxes on the highest-income Brits. And guess what? It failed."

Stormtrooper

Palestine on Hunger Strike

Khader Adnan had been arrested by Israeli authorities eight times before, but this time it'd gone too far. He was suspected of being an active part of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which Israel sees as a terrorist group. Adnan was been detained and no charges were filed against him. In protest, Adnan went on a hunger strike. Ken O'Keefe, human rights activist, joins us to take a deeper look into Adnan's demonstration.


Star of David

Israel wants regional resistance against Tel Aviv destroyed


The Tel Aviv regime is favoring the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in line with its policy of destroying the axis of resistance against Israel in the region, a journalist tells Press TV.

Lizzie Phelan, a British reporter and broadcaster, made the comment in an interview with Press TV on Monday.

"It is not about democracy and human rights in Syria, this is very clear as the Israeli officials say themselves time and time again this is about destroying the axis of resistance to Israel."

On Monday, Israeli media reported that Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon has called for the resignation of President Assad.

"We have a situation whereby a Western-backed illegal insurrection in Syria is being portrayed as a revolution being carried out by freedom fighters, meanwhile... genuine popular uprisings in Bahrain and Yemen are being suppressed by those very same Western forces and Saudi Arabia and Qatar and others," Phelan added.

Wolf

Geopolitics and The Russian Elections: Putin Wins...

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Vlad's the man
Pre-election polls predicted around a 60% majority. Final results show Putin won 63.6% of the vote. He got a clear third term mandate. In 2004, he won 71%.

Five candidates contended:
  • United Russia's Vladimir Putin
  • The Communist Party's Gennady Zyuganov
  • The Liberal Democratic Party's Vladimir Zhirinovsky
  • Just Russia's Sergey Mironov
  • Independent candidate Mikhail Prokhorov (billionaire/Russia's third richest man)
With nearly all votes counted, official results were as follows:
  • Putin: 63.6%
  • Zyuganov: 17.2%
  • Prokhorov: 7.9%
  • Zhirinovsky: 6.2%
  • Mironov: 3.9%
Turnout was 63.3%. It exceeded December's parliamentary elections.