Tea Party-Slandering MSNBCer Reid Steadfastly Refuses to Call Putin or Assad ‘Evil’

Appearing on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Monday, MSNBC host Joy Reid repeatedly refused to characterize either Russian president Vladimir Putin or Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as “evil.” During a contentious debate over Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine, Hewitt asked his guest point-blank, “Do you agree that what Russia is doing is evil?” [Video embedded below the break.]

Reid hedged on her answer, replying:

I think what Russia is doing is troubling and is a problem in the world. I don’t really need to use characterizations like “evil.” I think Russia is a bad actor, absolutely.
 

Reid then tried to deflect attention to, of all people, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani: “I think Giuliani thinks that Putin’s a star. I think today he said he’s a great leader or something like that.” In fact, Giuliani said that Putin is more of a leader than President Obama, which is different than calling him a great leader or a “star.”

Reid wouldn’t say what she thought of Putin, so Hewitt pressed her: “[B]ut Joy Reid, it’s a simple question. Is he evil?” However, Reid still refused to make such a judgment. She replied, “I’m not inside anybody’s mind. I don’t need to characterize anybody as evil. I don’t know Vladimir Putin.”

Hewitt then asked if it would be an evil act for Russia to attack Ukrainian bases with women and children inside. Reid only said it would be a “world crisis.”

The conservative radio host then switched gears and asked the liberal MSNBC host if she thought Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was evil. With a chuckle, Reid replied, “Oh, well, you know. I’m not even – like I said, I’m not characterizing people.” She went on to call him “an even worse actor and an awful human being.”

Hewitt asked again if she thought Assad was evil, and Reid responded by answering a question that Hewitt didn’t ask: “Would I like to see Bashar al-Assad gone? Absolutely.” Hewitt asked one final time if Assad was evil, and Reid refused to label him as such one last time. She said, “I don’t see the point of characterizing people like that. I think he’s a bad actor. I think he is a despicable leader, a despicable human being.”

That is the world that too many liberals live in – a world of moral uncertainty, where there is no good or evil and no brutal dictator is anything more than a “bad actor.” By refusing to characterize Putin and Assad as “evil,” Reid is essentially equating them with conservatives, whom she has vehemently attacked over the years.

Last July, for example, Reid compared the Tea Party to terrorists when it came to budget negotiations:
 

To put it another way, when somebody is threatening to bomb the stadium, you don’t go out and make a speech about how you’re willing to dismantle the stadium in order to appease them.
 

In October, Reid likened Republicans to hostage-takers for shutting down the government. She railed, “So they are now essentially taking hostages. But this is beyond a hostage situation. They have shot a hostage. They went ahead and shut the government down.”

And in September, Reid claimed that anti-ObamaCare Republicans were basically asking people to kill themselves:
 

[H]erein lies the great irony about the conservative objection to Obamacare. What are they actually asking people to do? They’re actually asking you to essentially kill yourself, because if you get sick and you don’t have insurance, and you can’t be treated, you cannot survive a catastrophic illness.
 

She makes conservative Republicans sound like “bad actors,” which is how she characterized Putin and Assad. I guess to Reid, there is no difference between two repressive world leaders and the liberty-loving political party in this country.

Below is a transcript of the segment from The Hugh Hewitt Show:

HUGH HEWITT: Do you agree that what Russia is doing is evil?

JOY REID: I think what Russia is doing is troubling and is a problem in the world. I don’t really need to use characterizations like ‘evil.’ I think Russia is a bad actor, absolutely. I think it’s pretty clear who the bad actor here is. It’s Russia – who, by the way, a lot of the right – I think Giuliani thinks that Putin’s a star. I think today he said he’s a great leader or something like that. You have a lot of people on the right who’ve been quite, you know, keen on Vladimir Putin up until now. I think people have to now decide, do they still want to make him their hero because they hate Barack Obama so much when this is the way he’s acting? He’s old, Kremlin, Cold War Vlad. He’s doing what Vladimir Putin does, and now the rest of the world has to realize that this is not, you know, Vladimir Putin 2.0. This is Vladimir Putin 1.0.

HEWITT: But is he – but Joy Reid, it’s a simple question. Is he evil?

REID: That – you know what? I’m not inside anybody’s mind. I don’t need to characterize anybody as evil. I don’t know Vladimir Putin – I know what he’s doing is – it’s risky to his own country. I mean, it’s risky, obviously, to what the Ukrainians need in terms of security. I think he is a bad actor. I don’t need to call him evil, he’s a bad actor.

HEWITT: They’ve got a deadline in a couple of hours. They’re gonna open fire on these Ukrainian bases with women and children in it. Would that be an evil act that he’s authorizing?

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REID: Right, you have intel that I don’t know if the U.S. government has. I think that if Russia were to escalate militarily in Ukraine, it would be a crisis. It would definitely be a crisis, and it would be a world crisis. And it’s not – I think that one of the problems we have is that we have this binary system, right, where people on the right – it feels good to say, ‘this person is evil, let’s bomb them.’ That is not foreign policy. That is bluster that may make Americans feel good, but A) there is no military solution there. Americans are not sending our troops in there to deal with this. We are not doing that.

HEWITT: I didn’t suggest that. I just wanted to call him evil, ‘cause I –

REID: – couple times. I don’t think that’s necessary. We need to deal with it. We have to still deal with Russia.

HEWITT: Do you call anybody evil?

REID: – make it easier – yeah, but does that make it easier? It makes it easier for us to deal with Iran and Russia. We still have to deal with them on Syria. This is somebody that is there, that we’re not going to depose Vladimir Putin. We’ve got to deal with him.

HEWITT: Joy, is Assad evil?

REID: Bashar Assad?

HEWITT: Yeah.

REID: Oh, well, you know. [chuckles] I’m not even – like I said, I’m not characterizing people. Bashar al-Assad is an even worse, an even worse actor and an awful human being. That is a noxious, despicable regime. We’d be better off if he weren’t there. The people of Syria are trying their best to do something about it. Again, there’s no American military solution to be imposed there, either, and I doubt your listeners want us to go in there and try to impose that.

HEWITT: But is he evil?

REID: Would I like to see Bashar al-Assad gone? Absolutely.

HEWITT: Well, yeah, but I just want to know if you think he’s evil.

REID: I don’t – I don’t see the point of characterizing people like that. I think he’s a bad actor. I think he is a despicable leader, a despicable human being.

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Tea Party-Slandering MSNBCer Reid Steadfastly Refuses to Call Putin or Assad ‘Evil’

Obama threatens new pressure on Assad regime

AFP Feb 15, 2014, 05.24PM IST

• 

(The US leader said both he…)

RANCHO MIRAGE (UNITED STATES): As Syrian peace talks in Geneva appeared to flounder, US President Barack Obama vowed to step up pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Obama’s remarks came as he hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the Sunnylands retreat in Palm Springs, California, to address issues including the flood of Syrian refugees into Jordan.

The US leader said both he and the Jordanian king “recognize that we can’t just treat the symptoms” of the Syrian crisis.

“We’re also going to have to solve the underlying problem – a regime led by Bashar al-Assad that has shown very little regard for the well-being of his people.

“We are going to need a political transition in that region.” “We don’t expect to solve this any time in the short term so there are going to be some immediate steps that we have to take to help the humanitarian situation there,” Obama said.

“There will be some intermediate steps that we can take to apply more pressure to the Assad regime, and we’re going to be continuing to work with all the parties concerned to try to move forward on a diplomatic solution,” he said, without specifying what those steps may be.

At the meeting Obama pledged $ 1 billion in loan guarantees to Jordan, as well as a renewal of a five-year memorandum of understanding.

The current five-year package, worth $ 660 million a year, expires in September.

The funds are aimed in part at helping Washington’s Middle East ally cope with the flood of Syrian refugees and its loss of natural gas from Egypt, White House officials said.

King Abdullah said the Syrian crisis and the rise of extremism are his country’s primary concerns.

Jordan has borne the brunt of much of the humanitarian overflow, with nearly 600,000 Syrian refugees on its soil, straining its infrastructure and finances.

The United States is the largest aid donor to Syrian refugees, so far donating $ 1.7 billion to the cause, according to the US Agency for International Development.

A senior administration official said that the $ 1 billion guarantee will make it easier for Jordan to access capital markets and borrow money.

“It’s a signal to the markets of the strong confidence of the United States in Jordan, of our partnership, and of our intention to be there as a partner for Jordan in the long term,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Concerning Syria, Washington has been trying “to work with and press the Russians to understand that the status quo is not serving their interests either,” the official said. “They are much closer to the parts of Syria than we are that are becoming increasingly ungoverned and dangerous.”

The official blasted the Russians for having “a pretty sorry record having twice double vetoed with the Chinese quite anodyne” UN resolutions.

But he said Washington and its allies “could conceivably reach agreement on a humanitarian resolution” with them.

Such a resolution could be “strong in terms of the obligations and expectations that it would impose on the regime to improve humanitarian access,” but not necessarily include more sanctions or a threat of force.

The Russians “can’t have it both ways,” the official said. “They can’t say they’re in favor of negotiations in Geneva and a transitional government guided by full executive authority and humanitarian access, and have a happy Olympics, and then be part and parcel of supporting this regime as it kills people in the most brutal way.”

The meeting with the king of Jordan – whose nation began a two year term in the UN Security Council in January – is the first of a trio of meetings between Obama and key Middle East leaders in the coming weeks.

On March 3, the US president will sit down at the White House for his latest encounter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made no secret of his skepticism over an interim deal that Washington and other world powers reached with Iran on its nuclear program.

Then at the end of March, he will travel to Saudi Arabia to meet King Abdullah, who shares Netanyahu’s doubts about Obama’s Iran strategy.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

Obama threatens new pressure on Assad regime

Obama considers new steps against Syria ‘to pressure’ Assad

US President Barack Obama (R) listens while King Abdullah II of Jordan makes a statement for the press before a meeting at The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands February 14, 2014 in Rancho Mirage, California. (AFP Photo / Brendan Smialowski)

US President Barack Obama said he is mulling steps to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to kickstart the stalled Geneva peace conference. But Russia’s FM Sergey Lavrov says every attempt is being made to derail the peace process.

Obama’s comments were delivered while meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah in California on Friday to discuss a range of issues, including the current Syrian stalemate.

The US president said he does not expect the conflict to be resolved in the immediate future, though “immediate steps” will be taken to “help the humanitarian assistance there.”

“There will be some intermediate steps that we can take applying more pressure to the Assad regime and we are going to be continuing to work with all the parties concerned to try to move forward on a diplomatic solution,” Reuters cited Obama as saying.

Obama did not specify what steps he would consider, but US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Friday that Obama had asked “all of us to think about various options that may or may not exist.”

Having pledged $ 1 billion in loans to help stabilize Jordan’s economy, the US believes that the country, which already currently has more than 600,000 Syrian war refugees, has a part to play in resolving the Syrian conflict.

“We have been ramping up our support to the moderate opposition and Jordan has its own strong role to play in relationship to the moderate opposition,” a senior Obama administration official told the agency following two hours of talks at the Sunnylands retreat.

Frustrated by what he views as Assad’s intransigence regarding a transition of power in the country, Obama has made it a clear a more assertive policy could be in the works.

Senior administration officials who briefed reporters about Obama’s talks with King Abdullah reiterated previous claims that all options remain on the table, short of putting boots on the ground.

One option is arming the Syrian rebels, something that Washington’s Gulf allies have been actively doing, though one official said such a move would only be enacted to help push the process toward a political solution.

AFP Photo / Mahmud Al-Halabi

According to one report last month, the US Congress has already authorized sending small arms, an assorted variety of rockets, and financial backing to moderate rebel forces.

American and European security officials told Reuters that the US will provide anti-tank rockets, but nothing as deadly as shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (known as MANPADs), which can be used to bring down military or civilian aircraft.

The US has long opposed arming rebels with anti-aircraft missiles, fearing they could fall into the hands of extremists who would then use them against the West or commercial airlines. A senior Obama administration official told the Wall Street Journal on Friday that the US objection remains the same. “There hasn’t been a change internally on our view,” the official said.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia on Friday decided to start providing the opposition with Chinese Manpads and antitank guided missiles from Russia, WSJ reports, citing Western and Arab diplomats and opposition figures.

Although significant military hardware remains off the table for now, the US for its part has increased its financial support to the opposition, handing over millions of dollars to help pay rebel fighters, said rebel commanders who received some of the money. Washington would not comment on the payments.

On Friday, FM Lavrov said it was his impression that “systematic attempts” were being made to find any excuse to derail a political settlement in Syria.

“First, a political settlement was almost derailed over speculation regarding chemical weapons. Now that that problem is solved, I hope that everything will be done, just as the Syrian leadership has pledged,” Lavrov told a press conference following talks with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

‘When the chemical [weapons] issue is not being speculated over, then attempts are made to politicize the issue of the humanitarian crisis,” he said.

Lavrov said that when Russia and the US took the initiative to push ahead with the Geneva 2 peace conference, it was perfectly clear that there should be complete implementation of the June 2012 Geneva Communique, which, among other points, calls for a transitional governing body that could include members of the current government and the opposition.

But in pushing the Syrian opposition to participate in the Geneva 2 conference, there is now the impression that Western powers only did so for the sake of initiating regime change, he said.

“Certainly, we grow alarmed whenever the presidents of the United States and France once again say at a joint press conferences that the affair may go beyond negotiations,” Lavrov said.

Source: RT

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Obama considers new steps against Syria ‘to pressure’ Assad

Al-Qaeda calls to its Syrian affiliate to fight Assad only remained unanswered - expert

Hello, Sir. Thank you for joining us. First of all, why al-Qaeda decide to publicly announce the break just to feel exposed or is there any other reason behind this statement for the Western press? What is your impression?

Well, animosity has been growing between the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS and other rebel groups, and that has fueled deadly infighting. That has also harmed the movement against President Assad, the infighting has trapped their ability to launch an effective campaign against the Syrian regime. Now al-Qaeda Central lead by Ayman al-Zawahiri has spoken in the past of the fact that the al-Qaeda affiliate needs to focus its aims more against the Assad regime rather than fight other Syrian rebel groups. And the fact is that those calls have fallen unanswered which is party why now Al-Qaeda Central is taken this move against its affiliate.

Now, in related issue, many say al-Qaeda is gradually loosing its control over the territory mid arising in fighting in Syria? Is that really so?

The main area of concern internationally has been that the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria have been very actively engaging in recruiting British, German and French nationals to fight for their cause. And that has been of major concern for Western governments because of the potential blowback where their citizens could become radicalized ideologically as well as be equipped militarily. And with those skills they would return home, to their countries of origin, and in a position to plot and plan deadly mass casualty attacks, very similar to what we saw in the aftermath of 9/11 right up till 2006, where British nationals were trained in Pakistan by al-Qaeda and then come home to plan major mass casualty plot. Al-Qaeda’s ability to recruit in Syria has not diminished or shown any sign of weakening, it actually has been quite consistently active and that itself is another concern.

Now, Sir, let’s talk a little bit about ISIL. Initially, ISIL was the al-Qaeda branch in Iraq. Then why did it expand its operations into Syria. What is it fighting there for? What are their interests in Syria?

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been a group that grew in the aftermath of the US led operations in Iraq from 2003, led by individuals like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi although he was killed, the group itself still conducted a number of attacks against the US soldiers as well as carrying the attacks against Iraqis but most importantly developing sectarian conflict inside Iraq itself. It was inevitable once the battle against the Assad regime began, that those elements in Iraq would align themselves with individuals of a similar ideological lining in Syria. Iraq and Syria are very closely intertwined in many ways. At one point both countries had Ba’ath Party president. There is often been people transferring from either country for jobs or economic reasons. Historically, the connections between Syria and Iraq are very strong. So it was inevitable that even that terrorists and extremists would use e connections to align themselves. It illustrates the fact that the al-Qaeda franchise continue to expand and to proliferate and the group itself is very much following the same ideological pattern as other al-Qaeda factions, which is to create an Islamic state based on Sharia law opposed to manmade laws, opposed to any type of form of democracy, a very stringent rigid doctrine.

The views expressed here are solely those of the interviewee and may not represent the views of the Voice of Russia editorial team

The Voice of Russia, News

Al-Qaeda calls to its Syrian affiliate to fight Assad only remained unanswered - expert

Syria talks yield narrow deal, Assad "red line"

Haitham al-Maleh, senior member of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), Syria’s main political opposition group, leaves a meeting with U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Syrians on opposite sides of their country’s civil war tried again Sunday to find common ground, with peace talks focusing on an aid convoy to a besieged city that once more came under mortar attack from the government. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Haitham al-Maleh, senior member of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), Syria’s main political opposition group, leaves a meeting with U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Syrians on opposite sides of their country’s civil war tried again Sunday to find common ground, with peace talks focusing on an aid convoy to a besieged city that once more came under mortar attack from the government. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Monzer Akbik, center, a spokesman of the of the Syrian National Coalition, Syria’s main political opposition group, is surrounded by journalists after a meeting with the Syrian government at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Syrians on opposite sides of their country’s civil war tried again Sunday to find common ground, with peace talks focusing on an aid convoy to a besieged city that once more came under mortar attack from the government. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Monzer Akbik, center, a spokesman of the Syrian National Coalition, Syria’s main political opposition group, is surrounded by journalists after a meeting with the Syrian government at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Syrians on opposite sides of their country’s civil war tried again Sunday to find common ground, with peace talks focusing on an aid convoy to a besieged city that once more came under mortar attack from the government. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Monzer Akbik, a spokesman of the Syrian National Coalition, Syria’s main political opposition group briefs the media, at the European headquarters of the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Syrians on opposite sides of their country’s civil war tried again Sunday to find common ground, with peace talks focusing on an aid convoy to a besieged city that once more came under mortar attack from the government. (AP Photo/Keystone,Salvatore Di Nolfi)

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi gestures as he gives a short press briefing upon his arrival to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. Syria’s government and opposition face each other for the second time Sunday, buffered by a U.N. mediator hoping to guide them to a resolution of the country’s devastating civil war. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

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GENEVA (AP) — Two days of face-to-face peace talks yielded a narrow and tentative agreement Sunday for women and children trapped in a besieged Syrian city, and the government said President Bashar Assad had no intention of giving up “the keys to Damascus.”

With little progress to show after months of international pressure for the conference in Geneva, the U.N. mediator hoping to broker an end to Syria’s civil war defended their pace.

“I think being too slow is a better way than going too fast,” Lakhdar Brahimi said. “If you run, you may gain one hour and lose one week.”

The limited agreement to let women and children leave a blockaded part of the old city of Homs, under negotiation for at least two days, fell far short of expectations and was called into question by multiple reports of government shelling.

The talks have yet to touch upon the issue of a possible transitional government — their purpose according to terms laid out when they were first conceived. But the government was unequivocal that Assad’s future was assured in the country led by his family since 1970.

“This is a red line. If some people think we are coming here to give them the keys of Damascus they are wrong,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad, echoing the language U.S. President Barack Obama used to describe a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

In Syria, the war continued as if there were no effort to stop it — gunfire and shelling in Homs, between Assad’s forces and rebels, and between the al-Qaida-linked militants and Kurdish fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The blockaded districts of Homs came under intense fire that activists blamed on the government, calling into question how any deals reached in remote Switzerland could be implemented or verified in a chaotic civil war with dozens of players that began as a largely peaceful uprising against Assad. More than 130,000 people have died in less than three years, and millions of Syrians have fled their homes.

Brahimi acknowledged that the agreement for Homs fell short of his hope to send a humanitarian aid convoy to the city. But, he said, “to bring Syria out of the ditch in which it has fallen will take time.”

There have been a number of short-lived, local truces reached between opposition-held towns and government forces in recent months that, including in Moadamiyeh, a sprawling rebel-held community west of Damascus, where about 5,000 residents were allowed to evacuate in the fall.

Monzer Akbik, an opposition spokesman, said the coalition was still determined to stay for the political talks set to begin Monday despite accusing the government of stalling.

“They were sidestepping some issues and saying they want to refer back to Damascus for answers. It is clear to us that the regime delegation is not in charge of its own decisions,” Akbik said.

Both sides claim to represent the Syrian people.

The Western-backed opposition, made up largely of exiled Syrians, says Assad has lost legitimacy and can no longer lead a country after unleashing the military on largely peaceful protests nearly three years ago. They say Assad is being propped up by aid, weapons and fighters from Iran and Russia.

The government says the rebellion is rife with terrorists and that Assad is the only person able to end the fighting, blaming the West and Gulf states — especially Saudi Arabia — of turning the country into an al-Qaida haven.

Homs was considered a promising place to start the negotiations.

The city was one of the first areas that plunged into armed conflict in 2011. Neighborhoods in the old city have been ravaged and emptied of residents following repeated government assaults to reclaim control from rebels. Activists say about 800 families are trapped, without regular access to food, medicine and basic necessities.

“The regime is blocking all convoys to Homs and has been doing so for months,” a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because the talks remain sensitive. “The situation in Homs is extremely urgent. Anything the government says to the contrary is false.”

Syrian activists, including the Observatory, said some rebel-held districts in Homs came under attack Sunday morning by mortar shells fired by government forces.

The two sides failed to reach agreement on a prisoner exchange, as Brahimi had hoped. Al-Mikdad said a list of names submitted by the opposition was greatly exaggerated, adding the government had no children in its jails, while the opposition said it had no control over the militants who have kidnapped hundreds of people, including aid workers and journalists.

Back in Syria, residents were following the talks closely, despite deep cynicism that they would achieve any concrete results.

“I watch the TV news twice a day and whenever else I have time,” said Ghassan Matta, a 47-year-old businessman in Damascus.

Qutaiba al-Rifai, 35, a private sector employee in Damascus said the peace talks in Geneva were premature and neither side was prepared.

“Till now, it’s unclear whether it’s a negotiations conference or a dialogue between the two sides.”

Monday’s talks promised to be far more difficult, and Brahimi wouldn’t predict how often the two sides could sit in the same room.

Al-Mikdad, the government official, said the opposition must come to the table “with their dreams outside the room when we sit and discuss concrete issues on the future of Syria.”

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper in Geneva; Ryan Lucas and Diaa Hadid in Beirut, and Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Syria talks yield narrow deal, Assad "red line"

The Growing Acceptance of the Assad Regime’s Survival

On the last day of last year, the Wall Street Journal ran a powerful indictment of President Obama’s Syria policy. No, it wasn’t an editorial or op-ed (although the Journal has run plenty of those too). Rather, this was a news article by Adam Entous and Siobhan Gorman, and the indictment was delivered not by the president’s political adversaries but by his own officials, particularly in the intelligence community.

The article explains that the intelligence agencies have retracted their previous assessments that it was only a matter of time before Bashar Assad fell–a staple of the president’s own rhetoric from the start of the full-blown uprising in 2011 until early 2013. No longer. In 2013 Iran and Hezbollah increased their commitment to Assad while the U.S. and its allies made no comparable commitment to the rebels, preferring instead to strike a deal for Assad to give up his chemical weapons–while he goes right on pulverizing the opposition and any civilians unlucky enough to be caught in his indiscriminate attacks. The result:

The intelligence assessments that once showed Mr. Assad on the verge of defeat now say he could remain in power for the foreseeable future in key parts of the country bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean coast. The U.S. doesn’t think he will be able to retake the whole country again, U.S. intelligence agencies believe. Areas outside his control are fracturing into warring enclaves along ethnic and sectarian lines, abutting a new al Qaeda-affiliated haven that sweeps from Syria into Iraq.

There was nothing inevitable about this division of Syria between Shiite and Sunni extremists, as I have been arguing for some time. It came about because the Iranians went all-in and the U.S. didn’t. As the Journal notes: “Through it all, U.S. intelligence and military officers watched the evolution with alarm from the sidelines, at least one step behind developments on the ground.” Thanks to this American hesitancy and confusion, the article notes, quoting “a longtime American diplomat in the region,” it now looks “like Messrs. Assad, Nasrallah and Soleimani have ‘won’.”

The flip side of a victory for Assad and his patrons in Hezbollah and Tehran is that the U.S. has lost. Obama’s defeat in Syria hasn’t been nearly as costly, at least so far, in American blood or treasure as President Bush’s temporary defeat in Iraq, from 2003 to 2007–but it is likely to prove more enduring and more damaging to American interests in the region because there is no “surge” on the horizon to save the day. In Syria the situation is likely to go from grim to grimmer, and drag down fragile neighboring states, notably Iraq and Lebanon, along with it into the vortex of sectarian bloodletting.

Commentary Magazine

The Growing Acceptance of the Assad Regime’s Survival

SYRIA Hacked Emails: US Backed Plan To Stage Chemical Weapons Attack & Blame Assad 2013Jan30

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With Assad in, and Ahmadinejad out, where does that leave Netanyahu?

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With Assad in, and Ahmadinejad out, where does that leave Netanyahu?

Assad: “West Is More Confident in Al-Qaeda than Me”

RIA Novosti
October 6, 2013

In an interview with a German magazine, Syrian President Bashar Assad has accused the West of lies about the use of chemical weapons in Syria and said Russia understands the reality of the conflict in his country “much better,” than the United States.

“We did not use chemical weapons,” Assad said in an advance version of an interview with Der Spiegel to be published on Monday. “This is a misstatement. So is the picture you paint of me as a man who kills his own people.”

The Syrian leader criticized the international community: “It seems to me that the West is more confident in al-Qaida than me,” he said.

Read more

This article was posted: Sunday, October 6, 2013 at 9:29 am

Tags: foreign affairs, terrorism, war

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Infowars

Assad: “West Is More Confident in Al-Qaeda than Me”

Assad: “West Is More Confident in Al-Qaeda than Me”

RIA Novosti
October 6, 2013

In an interview with a German magazine, Syrian President Bashar Assad has accused the West of lies about the use of chemical weapons in Syria and said Russia understands the reality of the conflict in his country “much better,” than the United States.

“We did not use chemical weapons,” Assad said in an advance version of an interview with Der Spiegel to be published on Monday. “This is a misstatement. So is the picture you paint of me as a man who kills his own people.”

The Syrian leader criticized the international community: “It seems to me that the West is more confident in al-Qaida than me,” he said.

Read more

This article was posted: Sunday, October 6, 2013 at 9:29 am

Tags: foreign affairs, terrorism, war

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  Print this page.

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Infowars

Assad: “West Is More Confident in Al-Qaeda than Me”

False Flag Alert: Do Syrian Rebels Plan To Hit Israel With Chemical Weapons And Blame Assad?

Do the Syrian rebels plan to attack Israel with chemical weapons in order to provoke Israel into a war with the Assad regime?  Now that it looks like the United States has been backed into a corner by Russia, it seems unlikely that the U.S. military will strike Syria in the immediate future and the Syrian rebels (and their backers in Saudi Arabia and Qatar) are extremely disappointed by this.  The entire purpose for the false flag sarin gas attack that took place back in August was to draw the United States military into the conflict.  Without U.S. intervention, the rebels have very little hope of overthrowing Assad and setting up the hardcore Sunni government that they desire.  So the rebels need another plan and they need one quickly.  Unfortunately, according to international news reports it looks like “Plan B” for the rebels may be to hit Israel with chemical weapons and blame it on Assad.  Of course the rebels absolutely hate Israel, but if they can get Israel to destroy the Assad regime they will be very happy about that.

One of the international news organizations that is reporting on this potential false flag operation is RT…

A chemical attack may be launched on Israel by Syrian rebels from government-controlled territories as a “major provocation,” multiple sources told RT.

Jewish news source ynetnews.com has also posted a story about this…

Arabic-language Russian news site Rusiya Al-Yaum has reported that Syrian rebels are planning a chemical attack on Israel.

In the report, it was claimed that “armed Syrian militants will use territories controlled by the Syrian regime to perpetrate their provocative plan.”

And as I discussed yesterday, there is very clear evidence that the rebels do have chemical weapons and have been using them against government forces for months.

These weapons have been supplied to the rebels by Saudi Arabia.  Qatar and Saudi Arabia have both spent billions of dollars to support the rebels in Syria, and they aren’t about to give up the fight now.

Needless to say, both the rebels and their financial supporters are absolutely against the diplomatic solution that Russia has proposed.  The following is from a Daily Beast article that was posted today…

The Syrian political opposition is dead set against the brand-new Obama-administration policy to pursue a new diplomatic negotiation with Russia in an effort to avoid a military strike on Syria, saying the delay and possible cancellation of Obama’s strike would only embolden Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

And according to Reuters, the “Gulf Arab states” are also expressing their displeasure with what is happening…

Gulf Arab states said on Tuesday a Russian proposal calling for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons to win a reprieve from U.S. military strikes would not stop bloodshed in Syria.

But of course Assad never used chemical weapons in the first place.  This is something I discussed at length yesterday, and this point was underscored by a report in a German newspaper today…

Syrian President Bashar Assad has repeatedly rejected requests from his field commanders for approval to use chemical weapons, according to a report this weekend in a German newspaper.

The report in Bild am Sonntag, which is a widely read and influential national Sunday newspaper, reported that the head of the German Foreign Intelligence agency, Gerhard Schindler, last week told a select group of German lawmakers that intercepted communications had convinced German intelligence officials that Assad did not order or approve what is believed to be a sarin gas attack on Aug. 21 that killed hundreds of people in Damascus’ eastern suburbs.

The only ones that are using chemical weapons in Syria are the rebels.

And if they decide to hit Israel with those chemical weapons and they are able to make it look like Assad did it, the consequences could potentially be absolutely catastrophic.

On Monday, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avigdor Liberman made it very clear that if Israel is attacked with chemical weapons, it will respond “in the harshest way possible”…

Israel will ensure that Syrian leader Bashar Assad will not remain in power if he attacks Israel, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avigdor Liberman (Likud Beytenu) said Monday.

The statement was the clearest warning to Assad delivered by a top Israeli figure since the escalation of tension between Syria and the United States.

“The supreme Israeli interest is to remain outside the conflict,” Liberman wrote on his Facebook page. “There are many figures trying to drag us in. We have successfully avoided that and we should continue in the future. That is why Bashar Assad’s threats in various media outlets to expand the conflict to neighboring countries bother me.

Israel has no interest, will or intention to take part in the Syrian civil war, but Assad must understand in the clearest way possible that if he and his regime do not leave us a choice and he attacks Israel or transfers chemical weapons to Hezbollah, Israel will respond in the harshest way possible, including toppling his regime.”

If a single chemical warhead falls in an Israeli city, and if the Israelis believe that Assad is responsible, they will respond by absolutely flattening Damascus.

When threatened with weapons of mass destruction, the Israeli military believes that it must respond with overwhelming force.  So Israel would not respond to a chemical attack by responding with a similar attack of their own.  Instead, their response would be asymmetric and it would be designed to completely end the conflict.

Let us hope that the Syrian rebels are not stupid enough to try a false flag attack against Israel.  It would result in a massive amount of innocent dead civilians on both sides, and it could potentially spark a major regional war in the Middle East which could ultimately lead to World War III.

About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth. His new thriller entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.

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The Truth

False Flag Alert: Do Syrian Rebels Plan To Hit Israel With Chemical Weapons And Blame Assad?

"Special Report" Panel Reacts to Assad Interview

Steve Hayes, James Rosen, Juan Williams, and Charles Krauthammer discuss Fox News’ interview with Bashar al-Assad.

RealClearPolitics Video Log

"Special Report" Panel Reacts to Assad Interview

VIDEO: Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter

A Turkish warplane shot down a Syrian helicopter that had violated Turkish airspace Monday, underlining the regional combustibility of Syria’s conflict despite frenzied international diplomacy. Dr. Joshua Walker, former State Department Advisor, discusses.

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VIDEO: Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter

VIDEO: Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter

A Turkish warplane shot down a Syrian helicopter that had violated Turkish airspace Monday, underlining the regional combustibility of Syria’s conflict despite frenzied international diplomacy. Dr. Joshua Walker, former State Department Advisor, discusses.

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

VIDEO: Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter

VIDEO: Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter

A Turkish warplane shot down a Syrian helicopter that had violated Turkish airspace Monday, underlining the regional combustibility of Syria’s conflict despite frenzied international diplomacy. Dr. Joshua Walker, former State Department Advisor, discusses.

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

VIDEO: Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter

VIDEO: Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter

A Turkish warplane shot down a Syrian helicopter that had violated Turkish airspace Monday, underlining the regional combustibility of Syria’s conflict despite frenzied international diplomacy. Dr. Joshua Walker, former State Department Advisor, discusses.

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

VIDEO: Turkey Shoots Down Syrian Helicopter

U.S., France, Britain to press Assad on chemical arms

PARIS/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United States, France and Britain on Monday stepped up pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to stick to a deal under which Syria must give up its chemical weapons, and warned he would suffer consequences if Damascus did not comply.

Reuters: Top News

U.S., France, Britain to press Assad on chemical arms

U.S.-Russia deal will allow Assad to "delay and deceive": McCain, Graham say

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), (R), makes remarks to the media as U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), (L), listens, after meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House, on possible military action against Syria, in Washington September 2, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Mike Theiler

Reuters: Politics

U.S.-Russia deal will allow Assad to "delay and deceive": McCain, Graham say