America’s War on Syria: Russia’s Fantasy “Stray Missiles” versus America’s Real Ones.
“Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terrorism.”- Barack Obama, 15th February 2013.
Even to those who do not watch
closely it has to be apparent that Washington’s vast disinformation
machine is finally out of control, seriously awry, or desperate.
The latest foray in apparent media
manipulation was the claim (1) by US “anonymous sources” that four
Russian missiles targeting terrorist groups in Syria, landed in Iran.
US Administrations are serial repeaters
of untruths. However talking of stray missiles after bombing a Médecins
Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan under a week before –
when coordinates of the buildings had been confirmed to US authorities
again just prior to the attack – then changing the story as to how it
happened four times in less days, is skating on wafer thin ice.
As Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of MSF and former French Foreign Minister wrote:
“Targeting a red cross drawn on the roof of a hospital is … unacceptable … a line has again been crossed.” Demanding an independent investigation he stated: “It is a war crime.” (Guardian, 9th October 2015.)
Former US Senate candidate, Mark Dankof,
speaking to Iran’s Press TV regarding US claims of stray missiles in
Iran believes a full-blown psychops operation towards Russia is
underway. (2) President Putin’s Ministers stating that all terrorists
terrorizing the people of Syria are targets – thus including the US
backed ones – might be the reason.
Dankof points out:
“ … two anonymous US officials (are) a basis for this claim, who in turn are quoting unspecified, uncorroborated, and unverified ‘military and intelligence information.’ ” (3)
Moreover: “This is laughable … and
underscores the blizzard of lies spun by the American government,
Israel, Saudi Arabia, the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council, and
Turkey, about what has been going on in Syria, and who is clearly
responsible for the 250,000 Syrian deaths, one million wounded, and 9.5
million displaced citizens of that country”, he added.
“The blame is clearly on the
aforementioned states, who have financed, supported, and introduced the …
extremists and terrorists into the sovereign state of Syria in an
illegitimate attempt to overthrow the legitimate and recognized
government … This is not simply evil, but illegal.
“The lies being woven by Zionist corporate media in the West about Russia are an attempt to conceal the alliance of ISIL, al-Qaeda, and affiliates with American, Israeli, British, French, and Saudi intelligence, and to conceal the obvious fact that the Russian airstrikes are hurting these terrorist groups militarily, even as they take place legally because the sovereign government … of Syria has formally requested Russian assistance.”
Dankov pointed out that on Thursday 8th
October, the “White Helmets” became CNN’s source for their reports on
the stray missiles, the network citing them as “an independent medical
team” in Syria. However:
“The truth is that the White Helmets are an invention of state intelligence agencies and NGOs who seek the overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This organization has special links to the British government in particular, and (also) to the PR firm Purpose Inc., to lobby for military intervention against Assad.“They are closely linked to the Avaaz NGO which has the same agenda, and is linked to the Open Society Foundation of George Soros …”
Australian born Jeremy Heimans,
co-founder and CEO of Purpose Inc. (“We create new organizations and
ventures to tackle issues where mass participation and collective action
can unlock big change”; “Purpose moves people to remake the world”) is
also a co-founder of Avaaz.
However, back to “stray missiles”, a
story speedily silent in the Western media. Russian General Musa Kamali
told Sputnik News Agency (9th October 2015): “We have no
reports of any Russian missiles crashing in Iran … those media reports
alleging that Russian missiles aiming at Syria hit Iran are blatant
lies.
“If the people making those claims had any proof, they would have certainly presented it”, he said. Quite.
Of course US expertise excels not alone
in stray missiles, but in planned assaults on hospitals and other
buildings protected under international laws. Hospitals are specifically
protected under Article 20 of the Geneva Convention, amongst other
binding international laws.
Intended indiscriminate destruction was
demonstrated, in 2003, when: “The scenes of downtown Baghdad in flames
(made it) abundantly clear why US officials insisted on covering up a
reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ at the UN Security Council
during Secretary of State Colin Powell’s February 5th (2003)
presentation of the American case for war against Iraq.” (4) Picasso’s
painting commemorates a Basque town razed to the ground by a German
aerial assault in April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.
At the onset of their illegal invasion
US aircraft were making bombing runs on Baghdad at the rate of 1,000 a
day with many parts of the city described as “an inferno.” Holocaustal
war crimes of enormity. (Holocaust: “ Great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life, especially by fire.”)
Further, the US is also no stranger to
stray missiles. As Time Magazine reported in April 2003, just two weeks
in to America’s bombardment:
“ … in the past week, three U.S. Tomahawks have gone missing in the rocky plains of southeastern Turkey en route to Iraq, several hundred miles from the war zone. Five more went astray in Saudi Arabia, and a handful of others have broken up in Iran and reportedly, Syria.” (5)
Bombing in Iraq, as everywhere
“liberated” by America was criminally indiscriminate, Edward Herman
cites Fallujah as a chilling example and of war crimes of enormity (6):
“According to Dr. Hafidd al-Dulzanni, head of the Commission for the Compensation of Fallujah Citizens, the U.S. assault (of 2004) destroyed some 7,000 houses, 840 stores, workshops and clinics, 65 mosques and religious sanctuaries, 59 schools, 13 government buildings, two electricity stations, three water purification plants, along with several railroad stations and sewage purification plants, among other things. Hospitals were an explicit target and weapons like white phosphorus and uranium-loaded projectiles were used, all adding up to massive violations of the laws of war.” (Emphasis mine.)
Fallujah’s illegal destruction both targeted and indiscriminate was, a metaphor for all Iraq.
On the day the US military entered Baghdad (8th
April 2003) they declared war on journalists, a grave breach of the
Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol 1 and a war crime under the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
First US troops directed a missile at
the Al Jazeera offices in Baghdad killing correspondent Tariq Ayoub and
seriously wounding several others. It should be noted that: “The attacks
came amid broadcasts showing some of the mounting slaughter being
conducted by US troops throughout the Iraqi capital.” (7)
The surviving Al Jazeera staff sought
shelter in nearby Abu Dhabi TV which then also came under US attack. Abu
Dhabi TV correspondent, Shaker Hamed issued an on air call for help
reporting: “Twenty-five journalists and technicians belonging to Abu
Dhabi television and … Al-Jazeera are surrounded in the offices of Abu
Dhabi TV in Baghdad.” Note the “surrounded”, these were seemingly no
“stray” airborne missiles, the tanks were firing from near point blank
range. “Kill the messenger” comes to mind.
Hamed called for relevant agencies: “to
intervene quickly to pull us out of this zone where missiles and shells
are striking in an unbelievable way.”
In a now chillingly familiar story, also
reminiscent of the MSF hospital in Kundiz: “Al-Jazeera had written to
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on February 23 giving the precise
location of its office so as to avoid being targeted.” Giving
co-ordinates to the US military is, it appears, literally the kiss of
death.
Al Jazeera was also attacked by the US troops in Afghanistan at the time of the US invasion, as Iraq, destroying their offices.
Having targeted Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi
TV, the US troops turned their attention to the Palestine Hotel, where
two hundred journalists and world wide media were based. They killed
Reuters correspondent Taras Protsyuk and Jose Couso of Spanish Telecinco
TV. Three other journalists were injured, the hotel was extensively
damaged. The US military had of course, been informed that the Palestine
was the media’s base.
The previous day, in Basra, Al Jazeera
offices were targeted by two US missiles which failed to explode and
outside Baghdad on the highway both Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV cars,
clearly marked as such on roof, sides and hood were targeted,
miraculously no one was hurt.
ITV journalist Terry Lloyd was murdered
near Basra by the US within four days of the invasion – also in a
clearly marked car. Cameraman Fred Nerac and their Lebanese assistant
Hussein Osman in an accompanying car were also killed. French cameraman,
Daniel Demoustier, injured in the attack said the US were firing on
media vehicles: “to wipe out troublesome witnesses.” Given the examples
above and the continuing litany of such attacks by US troops (and
British) during the occupation, he seems to have hit the nail on the
head.
When it comes to war crimes the US is a
serial offender. In the 1991 assault on Iraq all water purification
plants were deliberately destroyed on the orders of US Central Command,
as were clinics, schools, separate Education Ministry stores, media
centres and radio stations were obliterated across the country. (8) Over
fifty percent of all livestock was destroyed, farms and herds, chicken
farms a special target. Iraq was the world’s largest exporter of dates –
the US clearly regarded date palms as an enemy and bombarded great
ancient, majestic groves too.
The women and children who nightly went
to the great, reinforced Ameriyah Shelter on the outskirts of Baghdad
were also incinerated – the US had satellites over the Shelter which
recorded the women and children entering as dusk fell and leaving at
first light.
The factory that made baby milk powder
was reduced to rubble and described as a “chemical weapons factory.” The
machinery was provided, installed and maintained by a company in
Birmingham, England – and could only have been used to provide baby
milk.
Also destroyed were plants which
produced basic medical supplies as syringes, pain killers, antibiotics, a
well worn path followed in other US bombings as a civilian
pharmaceutical factory, Al-Shifa (“The Cure”) Sudan in August 1998 when
missiles also rained down on Afghanistan. Two US embassies in East
Africa had been attacked, so as ever, proof-free Judge, jury and
executioner, the US randomly bombed.
Barely noticed have been the numerous US
attacks on ancient Yemen (population just 24.41 million) before their
ongoing proxy attack by current Chair of the UN Human Rights Council,
Saudi Arabia.
Ninety eight US missile and drone
attacks struck Yemen between 2002 and 2015; forty one in 2012, twenty
six in 2013 and fourteen in 2014, with other attacks in 2009, 2010 and
2011. The cost in human life is hidden and shaming. In May 2010 alone an
“errant” US drone killed five people. In December 2009 a US Cruise
missile killed forty one souls. (9)
In 1999 former Yugoslavia was decimated –
with stray US missiles landing in Macedonia, hitting Belgrade’s media
centre, the Chinese Embassy, markets, obliterating train passengers, all
“liberated” from life the American way.
2011 brought involvement in Libya’s
destruction – another metaphor for the monstrosity of lawless might
presented as benevolent saviour.
Let us hear no more phony allegations of stray missiles before the hell of the real ones have been accounted for.
Notes
- http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/09/russia-denies-missiles-aimed-at-syria-landed-in-iran
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-russian-intervention-exposes-coalition-lies-the-terrorists-r-us/5480359
- http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/10/09/432620/US-Russia-Syria-psyop
- https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/03/bagh-m22.html
- http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,439517,00.html
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/after-all-we-did-for-them-in-fallujah/5480223
- https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/04/jaz-a09.html
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/operation-desert-slaughter/7920
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Yemen
I am indebted to Nicolas J. Davies,
author of the eye opening “Blood on Our Hands – The American Invasion
and Destruction of Iraq” for the reminder of stray US missiles.
Copyright © Felicity Arbuthnot, Global Research, 2015
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