The Syria Analysis Thread

President Camacho Monday 11 Mar 2013

US-born former Army vet known as 'The American' fights alongside Al Qaeda

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He's a U.S.-trained soldier turned Muslim warrior who moves between America and countries where the winds of the Arab spring blow, fighting alongside jihadists and America-hating terrorists while celebrating his bloody exploits on YouTube videos.

Eric Harroun, 30, grew up in Phoenix before joining the U.S. Army in 2000. Although Harroun was never deployed during his three-year hitch, he has seen plenty of combat fighting with Syrian rebels and, more recently, Jabhat al-Nusra, a group the U.S. State Department classifies as an alias for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Harroun, who said he is now in Turkey, shrugged off a question about fighting alongside Al Qaeda terrorists who have joined the Syrian rebellion, saying, "the U.S. plays both sides, too." He said the offshoot of the terror group behind the 9/11 attacks welcomed him.

“Getting into Al-Nusra is not rocket science," he said. "It just takes balls and brains.”

Harroun, known among Syrian rebels and loyalists alike as “The American,” has moved from one country to another, joining protesters in the takedown of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before fighting alongside rebels attempting to depose Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. A prolific poster of online diatribes against the infidel, he's joined the threads of those calling for the deaths of Zionists.

In Syria, Harroun has become so well known that a pro-regime video was created claiming that “The American” is a “criminal from Miami.” A mugshot and rap sheet are provided as proof of Harroun’s criminal past, but the picture in the video does not resemble Harroun.

In recent months, Harroun has appeared in several online videos alongside Syrian rebels fighting in Damascus. Described in his Facebook profile as a Sunni Muslim, Harroun has posted in several threads claiming to have personally killed several Shabiha (supporters of the Assad regime), Syrian soldiers and an Iranian.

“I hate bad guys like Bashar [Assad]," Harroun told FoxNews.com. "I hate Iran, too. I am a freedom fighter."

...

In the video, Harroun and a driver he addresses in Arabic as “The Chechen” ride toward the downed Syrian helicopter.

“We smoked the mother f*****s, didn’t we?” Harroun tells the driver.

"Allah Akbar!” he exclaims.

.......

"Maybe Gaza is next for me, maybe [the] West Bank," said Harroun, whose Facebook wall bears the quote: “The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist.”

SweetLeftFoot Friday 15 Mar 2013

Winston Smith wrote that.

Sets the narrative nicely for going either way:

His type support 9/11 and maybe go to Gaze ... get the drones and enforce a no fly zone now Assad suitably weakened for the Long Game Fight against Iran.

He hates Iran ... let's support these brave freedom fighters in Rambo 7!

SweetLeftFoot Friday 15 Mar 2013

Given the rebels hold Krak and have used it as a staging base, thus inviting Syrian govt attacks that have damaged some of the priceless antiquities, unlikely Assad holds prisoners there.

Don Johnson Friday 15 Mar 2013

U.S. sending Free Syrian Army 200,000 halal MREs

The U.S. government is airlifting 200,000 Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) to the Free Syrian Army, although they will expire by June, The Cable has confirmed.

At a briefing for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 7, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman and Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford told lawmakers that the U.S. government would provide the MREs to elements of the Free Syrian Army within the coming weeks. The officials also said that these MREs were set to expire in June of this year and that they had some concerns that the FSA was not in a position to receive and process the distribution of these MREs competently.

"We will closely monitor the expiration dates so that all MREs are delivered with ample time for them to be consumed before they expire, and the FSA will also be trained to use them before they expire," a senior administration official said.

The U.S. government is confident the MREs will be eaten before they go bad.

Stubby Tuesday 19 Mar 2013

Seems that chemicals weapons may have entered the mix

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162...ther-for-1st-alleged-chemical-weapons-attack/

Stubby Thursday 21 Mar 2013

.... or not, should have figured this was the case, it isn't the first time it's happened. Not that this stopped the largest outlets from immediately fishing for page views and towing the Hillary line.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/03/20/syria-chemical-weapons/2003823/

Niccolo and Donkey Sunday 24 Mar 2013

This is funny shit.....

Angocachi Roland SteamshipTime SweetLeftFoot President Camacho

John Kerry Is Sick of Iraq Letting Iran Fly Whatever It Wants Into Syria

Secretary of State John Kerry made a surprise trip to Iraq on Sunday to urge Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to at the very least do something about the continued Iranian flights to Syria that go right through Iraq's airspace. Right now they're not doing very much.

Kerry lobbied al-Maliki with the argument that Iraq could play a larger role in discussions about the Syria's future in a post-Assad era, if Iraq decides to play ball now. Kerry's main concern is that Iran is shipping weapons into Syria, "including rockets, antitank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, as well as Iranian personnel," intelligence officials told The New York Times . Iran insists it's only shipping in humanitarian aid and not weapons, but they're also one of Assad's biggest (and one of few remaining) allies.

The flights are going right through Iraq and the country is doing almost nothing about it. "[Kerry] will be very direct with Prime Minister Maliki about the importance of stopping the Iranian overflights and the transits across the territory or, at a minimum, inspecting each of the flights," an official travelling with Kerry told Reuters before the meeting. It's the first time the serving Secretary of State has visited Iraq since Hillary Clinton made the trip in 2009. Kerry said his meeting with al-Maliki was a "very spirited discussion" afterwards.

This isn't the first time concerns about the cargo on Iranian planes flying to Syria has been raised with Iraqi officials. Following numerous reports of unchecked Iranian weapon shipments last year, Iraq announced it would start regularly inspecting the planes if they had suspicions about the cargo. But American officials contend only two planes have been inspected since July despite flights happening on an almost daily basis. One inspected flight was on its way back to Iran when it was checked. It's hard to find suspicious cargo when the suspicious cargo was already unloaded.

But one of the biggest problems Kerry faces is how little Iraq can really do about the Iranian planes. American military planes no longer patrol the Iraqi skies and the country doesn't have it's own air force. There's little they can do about Iran's favorite supply route but ask politely for them to stop. With the military relationship between Iraq and the U.S. supposed to be on the decline, there's little Kerry can do but ask Iraq to ask Iran to stop.

Team Zissou Monday 25 Mar 2013

niccolo and donkey Roland NeoCornelio Angocachi

No justice no peace, weeps David Ignatius

The battle for political influence has centered around the opposition’s appointment of Ghassan Hitto as interim prime minister on March 19, under political pressure from Qatar and Turkey.
Though Hitto is a U.S. citizen who until recently lived in Texas, some Arab critics argue that he is sympathetic to the Islamist line pushed by Doha and Ankara. Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria and an informal coordinator of U.S. policy, told a House panel last Thursday that Hitto is “more Texan than Muslim Brotherhood.” This comment seemed to imply U.S. support, but one key U.S. official is said to have told colleagues that Hitto’s appointment as interim prime minister caught the U.S. by surprise.
Hitto’s appointment was sharply rejected by the Syrian opposition leadership the U.S. has been cultivating. First came the resignation Sunday of Sheikh Moaz al-Khatib, the head of the opposition coalition and seemingly a U.S. favorite when he met in Munich early last month with Vice President Joe Biden. Then Gen. Salim Idriss, who claimed the title of commander of the Free Syrian Army last December, told colleagues that he and his commanders couldn’t support Hitto until a broader array of the opposition had agreed to back him.

Among other things, what was this fuckhead doing in my country.

Thomas777 Monday 25 Mar 2013

Well, smart money says (as the article alludes to) he's a man Ankara approves of - and America's pro-Sunni line is really a capitulation to Turk demands, as that's the cost of Turkey continuing to play ball w/NATO.

Its fun to watch ZOG lose control of geopolitical situations.

Niccolo and Donkey Monday 25 Mar 2013

This is beginning to turn into a joke. This would indicate a crack in the American-Turkish-Gulf Arab alliance over Syria. Not enough to break it, but enough to put opposition forces into disarray.

The Syria Analysis Thread

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