Always the Last to Be Told

But anyone who is surprised has not been paying attention or reading any history text.

The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.

[...]

The recent raid into Syria was not the first time that Special Operations forces had operated in that country, according to a senior military official and an outside adviser to the Pentagon.

[...]

Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Bush issued a classified order authorizing the C.I.A. to kill or capture Qaeda militants around the globe. By 2003, American intelligence agencies and the military had developed a much deeper understanding of Al Qaeda’s extensive global network, and Mr. Rumsfeld pressed hard to unleash the military’s vast firepower against militants outside the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.

[...]

Apart from the 2006 raid into Pakistan, the American officials refused to describe in detail what they said had been nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks, except to say they had been carried out in Syria, Pakistan and other countries. They made clear that there had been no raids into Iran using that authority, but they suggested that American forces had carried out reconnaissance missions in Iran using other classified directives.

  NYT

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

They Promised

They deliver.

The road to Damascus.

You didn't really think they'd just go away quietly, did you?

March, 2004

Even before the U.S. occupation forces settled into Saddam Hussein's palaces in Baghdad, the neoconservatives who have set the direction of the Bush presidency's radical foreign and military policies were looking toward Syria.

  Counterpunch

October, 2008

US military helicopters have carried out a raid inside Syria along the Iraqi border, killing eight people including four children, Syrian officials say.

[...]

Its timing is curious, coming right at the end of the Bush administration's period of office and at a moment when many of America's European allies - like Britain and France - are trying to broaden their ties with Damascus, our correspondent adds.

  BBC

Not curious at all. The neocons will not be denied their agenda. Will not. Barack Obama’s “hope” is a false one for his believers. Until the American people rise up, the neocon agenda will continue, and the entire world will suffer. And the American people will not rise up. We will not get off this road in my lifetime, nor any of my readers’.

(You can read short refresher courses here on PNAC and P2OG - and here.)

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Israel Is Appeasing Syria, George

Israel and Syria on Wednesday said they were holding indirect peace talks through Turkish mediators — the first official confirmation of contacts between the longtime enemies.

  Yahoo

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

More Leaked Documents

American military forces in Iraq were authorized to pursue former members of Saddam Hussein’s government and terrorists across Iraq’s borders into Iran and Syria, according to a classified 2005 document that has been made public by an independent Web site.

  NY Times

Something tells me they weren’t authorized by Syria or Iran.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

PeaceMaker

News sources are offering cautiously optimistic reports about the prospects for success in the Middle East peace talks. (I like that people refer to these as Middle East peace talks when Iran isn’t invited and the Mid-East countries embroiled in war – Iraq and Afghanistan – are not on the agenda.) NPR’s Daniel Shore said this morning that Israel’s Olmert has said there can be no Israel without a Palestine. (That, of course, could be interpreted in more than one way.)

Wouldn’t it be ironic if a (semi-) lasting peace between Israel and Palestine could be brokered this time when George Bush, who hasn’t seriously involved himself in the issue in his whole time as President, has finally participated? He, of course, would then walk away claiming credit.

At least one Syrian state-owned newspaper doesn’t share any of the optimism. As reported by the International Herald Tribune, the paper claims:

"While the Bush administration and Israel may consider what happened and what could happen to destroy the Palestinian cause a victory, we consider it a defeat for a just and comprehensive peace," Tishrin said. That peace, it added, can only be achieved by ending Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

Which is why if George can claim any credit for success, it will only be a quick “Mission Accomplished” type affair, and not something real and lasting.

On the other hand, if the two countries could make some lasting peace efforts, George might indeed be able to take credit, considering he has been instrumental in creating such chaos in their neighborhood that the entire region is threatened with extinction if they don’t get a handle on it.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

More Dick Trails?

Allegations that a Syrian envoy admitted during a United Nations meeting Oct. 17 that an Israeli air strike hit a nuclear facility in September are inaccurate and have raised the ire of some in the US intelligence community, who see the Vice President’s hand as allegedly being behind the disinformation.

[...]

Recent news articles [...] continue to make allegations and suggest that a nuclear weapons facility was hit -- something that the Syrian government has denied, the Israeli government has not officially confirmed and US intelligence does not show.

[...]

What concerns intelligence officials is what appears to be manipulation of the press and strategic leaks to the public of false information, undercutting professional intelligence analysis, similar to what occurred before the Iraq war in an apparent effort to bolster support for engaging Iran.

  Raw Story

And just to be clear how important the disinformation is (as though you don’t already know from the experience with pre-Iraq invasion disinformation)…

An article today quotes former Administration hawk and onetime Bush United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, who links Syria's alleged action with Iran.

Even with all the nationalist screeching and administration railroading, up until the moment the official pronouncement of the Iraq invasion occurred, I had remained optimistic that reality and somebody with good sense would avert such an action. I have no such delusions this time. We will be attacking Iran.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Empty Baghdad

As 'Iraqis stream into Syria ahead of visa clampdown,' internal migration data obtained by the New York Times from the Iraqi Red Crescent, "indicate that in Baghdad alone there are now nearly 170,000 families, accounting for almost a million people, that have fled their homes."

  Cursor

There has been talk since the "Petraeus" report that there have been fewer incidents of violence in Baghdad since "the surge" began. I guess if you clear the place of people, you'll eventually have no incidents.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Iraqi Refugee

Yesterday I heard the tail end of a story on NPR about Iraqi refugees in Syria. Not insurgents. Iraqi civilians trying to get out of harm's way.

Since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, a young Iraqi woman has been blogging her experience at Baghdad Burning. As the years have gone by, and the situation has grown more and more desparate in Baghdad, her family has been agonizing over whether to stay or get out. They have finally made the momentous and painful decision, leaving their house in the care of a relative and taking a few possessions with them to Syria.

Read the post she created about the leaving. One thing she talks about is the choice of escaping to Jordan or Syria. She says that Jordan treats the refugees badly, but what I'm thinking about her family and other Iraqi refugees is that the choice of Syria might just be keeping a few steps ahead of the carnage. How soon before they have to find another place to go (or wish they'd gone to Jordan.) After all, the neocons always considered Iraq simply the first step on the road to Syria.

Did Pelosi Step in a Trap?

It seems there's a question now as to why Israeli PM Olmert denied that he sent a message of hope for cooperation with Syria by way of Nancy Pelosi. And the speculation is that the White House may have put pressure on him.

Josh Marshall is feeling a little skeptical about the denial, as he says that both a respected Ha'aretz reporter and a California Representative who accompanied Pelosi have said that she gave an accurate message to Syria's President from Olmert.

And, in a little bonus, Marshall gives us this bit of info about politics within the administration.

Last year, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked Olmert into a 48-hour cease-fire during the war with Hezbollah to allow humanitarian relief, but within hours Israeli planes were bombing again, to Rice's surprise and anger. Olmert had received a call, apparently from Cheney's office, telling him to ignore Rice.

  TPM post

Expect more, because TPM's readers form a roving band of investigators, and when Josh sends them on a mission, results roll in.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Hmmmmmmm

Syria played a key role in resolving the standoff over the 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran

[...]

[Information Minister Mohsen Bilal] said Syria had been asked "to help positively in the issue of British" crew members since their March 23 seizure by Iran in the Persian Gulf.

He did not elaborate.

[...]

[Foreign Minister] Al-Moallem, who also did not give any details on the Syrian mediation, spoke at Damascus international airport before the departure of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [...]

  Yahoo article

Could that be part of the reason Dumbya was so unhappy with Nancy Pelosi? Did she help to broker the release of those British soldiers? Could that explain His Highness' displeasure?

Well, you know I´m not going to forget about it...

U.S. forces launched a series of air strikes along Iraq's border with Syria, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.
The air raids started at about 6:20 a.m. in a number of towns near the western city of Qaim along the Syrian border, 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, AP reported.
Al Qaim hospital official said that more than 47 people died in the U.S. attacks, which destroyed two houses.

  Aljazeera article

[...]

Apparently there´s still no Iraqi constitution.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Wanted: New generals for Iran war

Reference links are embedded in the Justin Raimondo article, from which these excerpts are taken:

The political groundwork for an assault on Iran has already been laid, as Joshua Kurlantzick points out in an excellent piece in Vanity Fair magazine, and these preparations ought to evoke in us an eerie sense of déjà vu: the same playbook is being used as was followed in Iraq, even including a mysterious (and, in this case, uniquely kooky) group of exiles funneling fake "intelligence" to the war hawks in the Pentagon.

You say Chalabi, I say Rajavi – let's call the whole thing off!

[...]

As the president of the United States cowers in his ranch, afraid to meet with a 48-year-old mother who wants to know why her son had to die, he hurls anathemas at Tehran and gathers his hosts for fresh conquests. Bush can safely ignore Congress – not that they'll give him any trouble – and he can tell the chauffeur to speed up when he passes Cindy Sheehan on the way to a fundraiser for the Republican War Machine. However, he can't safely ignore the grumbling of his generals – who may be just short of joining the Crawford peace camp, along with a few divisions from the North American Command. Bush has just slapped down the top American commander in Iraq, General George Casey, for daring to suggest that troop reductions were in the offing. The London Telegraph reports:

"The top American commander in Iraq has been privately rebuked by the Bush administration for openly discussing plans to reduce troop levels there next year, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. … Gen George Casey, the U.S. ground commander in Iraq, was given his dressing-down after he briefed that troop levels – now 138,000 – could be reduced by 30,000 in the early months of next year as Iraqi security forces take on a greater role."

If the troops are going into Iran – or, as some say, Syria – then bringing them home is out of the question. Is the president facing an officers' rebellion as he ratchets up the rhetoric against Tehran?

The firing of General Kevin Byrnes, allegedly for "adultery" – even though he's already been separated from his wife – a few months before he's due to retire, is awfully suspicious in this context: General Byrnes reportedly made an enemy of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for opposing the Rumsfeldian "transformation" of the military into a more "flexible" instrument of the Bush Doctrine and the neocons' imperial vision. In essentially firing a four-star general – a vicious act of retribution that certainly bears the personal stamp of the chimp-in-chief – the White House engaged in a preemptive strike against the War Party's enemies in the military.

[...]

It's the night of the long knives in the Pentagon, as the War Party cleans out suspected dissidents from the top ranks of the military and prepares for the next move on the Middle Eastern chessboard.

[...]

The regime has a two-note strategy: fear and smear. This summer, they're firing with both barrels, and we can expect the noise level to rise appreciably as we approach the fourth anniversary of 9/11 – the catalytic event that catapulted us into this Bizarro World, where up is down, all morals are inverted, and we live in a "democracy" where a war opposed by a clear majority is about to be escalated, not ended.