This essay examines the connections between the foreign intervention crisis in Syria, the vast NSA surveillance program that has recently been exposed, and the sequence of events that begin with NSA program changes in February, 2001 \u2014 six months before 9\/11.\u00a0 The connections are illuminating.<\/i><\/p>\n
In mid June 2013 the Obama administration announced that it will start arming insurgents against the Syrian government because the regime crossed a \u201cred line\u201d by using chemical weapons \u2014 which it estimates have killed, over time, an estimated 100-150 rebels.[1]<\/p>\n
What we are not being told is the history of President Bashar Assad<\/b>, nor is he seen speaking in the American media.<\/p>\n
Assad is a medical doctor of mild personality who graduated in Damascus in 1988 and later began a four-year program of ophthalmology in London, England.\u00a0 When Hafez Assad, President of Syria, his father died in 2000, Bashar was elected President of Syria by a large popular majority, and again in 2007.<\/p>\n
We are not given insight by the media into President Bashar Assad, the man.<\/p>\n
He is married to British-educated Asma al-Assad, born in London, and a former investment banker. \u201cShe received the Gold Medal of the Presidency of The Italian Republic for humanitarian work in 2008 and won an honorary archaeology doctorate from La Sapienza university in Rome.\u201d[2]<\/p>\n
Although seen in interviews by independent journalists to be mild-mannered, respectful, rationally articulate, and fluent in English, Assad is seldom seen speaking in the US mainstream media.<\/p>\n
Thus it is poignant to watch his 18-minute interview with German reporter J\u00fcrgen Todenh\u00f6fe \u00a0in July 2012, and to hear his under-stated account of the foreign-backed insurgents whose violence has led to the deaths of thousands of Syrian state supporters.[3]<\/p>\n
It is illuminating to watch the 5-minute interview Assad gave the Sunday Times, March 3, 2013, saying that as long as Britain arms the insurgents to save Syria from its repressive dictator, \u201cthe arsonist cannot be seen as the firefighter.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another recent German TV interview, Assad (whom we know is a medical doctor) discusses the alleged and contradictory use of chemical weapons \u2014 defined as \u201cweapons of mass destruction\u201d \u2014 in local ground combat.\u00a0 He goes on to describe external financial support to the insurgents as \u201cstoking the fire.\u201d[4]<\/p>\n
Indeed, Aron Lund, a Swedish observer of the Syrian opposition, has listed about a dozen rebel groups, the largest of which are funded by either the West, the Gulf states, or Turkey. The 80,000-strong Free Syrian Army (also known as the Supreme Military Council), \u201cwas created in December 2012 after pressure from Western and Gulf Arab nations, which seek to make it the military wing of Syria\u2019s civilian exile group, the National Coalition.\u201d[5]<\/p>\n
To understand why the Western media, under heavy influence from the Pentagon, has demonized Mr. Assad as a vicious and indiscriminate murderer[6] of his own subjects, we can turn to a 2006 interview of \u00a0General Wesley Clark, a Rhodes scholar and the Supreme Allied Commander (Europe) of NATO, 1997-2000.<\/p>\n
Speaking on March 2, 2007 to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Clark said that about ten days after 9\/11 he visited his former staff in the Pentagon. They told him, in astonished tones, that the US was going to go to war with Iraq \u2014 which they said had no demonstrated connection to 9\/11, and they were at a complete loss to explain why.[7]<\/p>\n
A few weeks later Clark went back to the Pentagon and was told that the US was going to \u201ctake out\u201d seven Middle East countries in the next five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran. \u00a0He added, \u201cHad there been no oil there it would be like Africa. Nobody is threatening to intervene in Africa.<\/i>\u201c[8]<\/p>\n
This early agenda for \u201ctake out,\u201d said by Clark to have been in place immediately after 9\/11, raises questions about the anthrax attacks, which started September 18, 2001.<\/p>\n
The letters containing the lethal spores targeted, among others, Democratic Senators Tom Daschle (Senate Majority Leader) and Patrick Leahy. During this period of intense panic in Washington the 342-page Patriot Act was rushed through Congress October 24 and passed the Senate the next day.[9]<\/p>\n
It has since been amply demonstrated that the highly weaponized spores contained in the anthrax letters originated from within a US military laboratory, and were too sophisticated to have been produced by a non-state laboratory or by an individual.[10]<\/p>\n
Now if we look at the origins of the NSA super-surveillance program, which is generally believed to have begun right after 9\/11 as a provision of the Patriot Act, we will see that in fact it began in February, 2001, within weeks after the swearing in of the Bush administration.<\/p>\n
Mr. William Binney, a 40-year veteran of the NSA, explains that all communications companies were required at that time to collect data on their customers.\u00a0 One company, Qwest Communications, refused to do this, and its CEO, Joe Nacchio, is still in prison on false charges of insider trading.[11]<\/p>\n
Mr. Binney emphasized that virtually no one in the country was exempt.\u00a0 Even judges were recorded, so that almost everyone in the United States could potentially be coerced, using selected personal data as leverage.[12] The implications are staggering.\u00a0 How many elected and bureaucratic officials could be \u2014 or have already been \u2014 brought to heel in this manner?<\/p>\n
Thus by 9\/11 the \u201cdeep state\u201d was already armed against its population in a manner that Binney referred to as \u201cJ. Edgar Hoover on super steroids.\u201d[13]<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the mainstream media have increasingly accepted the US position that Middle East countries plagued by civil wars caused by repressive dictators must be saved by humanitarian intervention from enlightened Western democracies.<\/p>\n
Indeed Reuters correspondent Mark Hosenball reported last August that \u201cPresident Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing U.S. support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government.\u201d[14]<\/p>\n
The Reuters article continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cRecent news reports from the region have suggested that the influence and numbers of Islamist militants, some of them connected to al Qaeda or its affiliates, have been growing among Assad\u2019s opponents.\u201d[15]<\/p>\n
On June 17, 2013, CNN supported the al Qaeda connection:<\/p>\n
\u201cAl Qaeda\u2019s affiliate inside Syria is now the best-equipped arm of the terror group in existence today, according to informal assessments by U.S. and Middle East intelligence agencies, a private sector analyst directly familiar with the information told CNN.\u201d[16]<\/p>\n
In May, 2013, former FBI translator and whistle-blower[17] Sibel Edmonds had reported that \u201cBin Laden \u2013 and his number 2 Al Qaeda lieutenant \u2013 Ayman al-Zawahiri \u2013 worked with the U.S. government for 3 months after 9\/11 to coordinate destablization in the Caucus region.\u201d[18]<\/p>\n
In light of the evidence above connecting al Qaeda to the U.S. government, it is imperative to go back to 9\/11 \u2014 the trigger event for the global war on terror \u2014 and take a second look.<\/p>\n
In fact this is being done.<\/p>\n
A new source of evidence-based research is being developed by the academic 24-member 9\/11 Consensus Panel,[19] which has developed 32 Consensus Points examining the official claims about how events unfolded that day. The Panel uses a standard medical model to evaluate its evidence, which is intended to provide confidence to the media and the public in reconsidering the events of 9\/11.<\/p>\n
The enormous cost in lives and dollars of the Middle East wars, coupled with the pervasive spying of domestic citizens now in progress, should prompt all those interested in democracy to look carefully at this evidence.<\/p>\n
And regarding Syria at this moment, why is it the responsibility of the United States to intervene in the civil war of a sovereign country?<\/p>\n
If humanitarian intervention is indeed desired, why is it not a peace-keeping initiative arranged by the United Nations?<\/p>\n
Notes:<\/b><\/p>\n
[1] \u201cText: US Statement on Syria \u2014 Chemical Weapons,\u201d ABC News, June 14, 2013 (http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/wireStory\/text-us-statement-syria-chemical-weapons-19396269#.Ub9-PJzm-HQ ). To put the priority of this \u201cred line\u201d in perspective, note that 443,000 preventable deaths are caused each year in the USA by smoking, \u201cTobacco Use: Targeting the Nation\u2019s Leading Killer at a Glance, 2011,\u201d Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/chronicdisease\/resources\/publications\/aag\/osh.htm).<\/p>\n
[2] \u201cAsma al-Assad: Syria\u2019s first lady,\u201d ABC News Australia, March 21, 2012 (http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2012-03-20\/asma-al-assad-profile\/3900816).<\/p>\n
[3] \u201cSyria\u2019s President Baschar al Assad gives Interview to German Television\u201d (http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hEh1VClsnFM).<\/p>\n
[4] \u201cGerman television interviews the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad,\u201d February 20, 2013, http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Nau-VSu25VQ<\/p>\n
[5] \u201cFreedom Fighters? Cannibals? The Truth about Syria\u2019s Rebels, The Independent, June 17, 2013 ( http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/middle-east\/freedom-fighters-cannibals-the-truth-about-syrias-rebels-8662618.html.)\u00a0 \u201cMr. Lund is a regular contributor to the Swedish Institute for International Affairs. He is considered one of the best informed observers of the Syrian opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n
[6] Google Images shows that so far the West has not managed to capture an angry or unpleasant photograph of Mr. Assad. He is consistently mild and patient.<\/p>\n
[7] \u201cGeneral Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned \u2014 Seven Countries In Five Years\u201d (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw).<\/p>\n
[8] Ibid.<\/p>\n
[9] The Patriot Act is downloadable at http:\/\/www.gpo.gov\/fdsys\/pkg\/PLAW-107publ56\/pdf\/PLAW-107publ56.pdf.<\/p>\n
[10] Edward Jay Epstein, \u201cThe Anthrax Attacks Remain Unsolved,\u201d The Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2010 (http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704541004575011421223515284.html).<\/p>\n
[11] William Binney interview:\u00a0 \u201cInside the NSA\u2019s Domestic Surveillance Apparatus:\u00a0 Whistleblower William Binney Speaks Out,\u201d Democracy Now, June 10, 2013 (http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/blog\/2013\/6\/10\/inside_the_nsas_domestic_surveillance_apparatus_whistleblower_william_binney_speaks_out), and Dave Hodges, \u201cBefore Edward Snowden, There Was Joseph Nacchio,\u201d The Common Sense Show, June 13, 2013 (http:\/\/www.thecommonsenseshow.com\/2013\/06\/13\/before-edward-snowden-there-was-joseph-nacchio\/).<\/p>\n
[12] Binnie, Ibid.<\/p>\n
[13] Ibid.<\/p>\n
[14] \u201cExclusive: Obama authorizes secret U.S. support for Syrian rebels,\u201d Reuters, August 1, 2012 (http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2012\/08\/01\/us-usa-syria-obama-order-idUSBRE8701OK20120801).<\/p>\n
[15] Ibid.<\/p>\n
[16] Barbara Starr, \u201cAnalyst: Al Qaeda Affiliate in Syria now Best-Equipped of the Group,\u201d CNN, June 17, 2013 (http:\/\/security.blogs.cnn.com\/2013\/06\/17\/analyst-al-qaeda-affiliate-in-syria-now-best-equipped-of-the-group\/ ).<\/p>\n
[17] Edmonds\u2019 credibility was confirmed in a 2002 coalition letter to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20071031085021\/http:\/\/www.libertycoalition.net\/state-secrets-privelage\/coalition-letter-to-the-house-committee-on-oversight-and-government-reform-on-criminal-activities-by-the ).<\/p>\n
[18] \u201cReport: U.S. Government and NATO Worked with Bin Laden and His Top Lieutenant 3 Months AFTER 9\/11,\u201d Washington\u2019s Blog, May 2, 2013 (http:\/\/www.washingtonsblog.com\/2013\/05\/report-u-s-government-worked-with-bin-laden-and-his-top-lieutenant-2-months-after-911.html).<\/p>\n
[19] See:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.consensus911.org.\u00a0 Note the Panel\u2019s methodology, voting members, and honorary members.<\/p>\n