Underground stories 090613

Report: US strike on Syria to be 'significantly larger than expected' 

US is planning an aerial strike in addition to a salvo of Tomahawk missiles from Navy destroyers; New York Times: Obama ordered expansion of list of targets following reports Assad moved troops, equipment.

Despite statements from both US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry that a US-led strike on Syria would be a "limited and tailored" military attack, ABC News reported on Thursday that the strike planned by Obama's national security team is "significantly larger" than most have anticipated.
According to ABC News, in additional to a salvo of 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from four Navy destroyers stationed in the eastern Mediterranean, the US is also planning an aerial campaign that is expected to last two days.
This campaign potentially includes an aerial bombardment of missiles and long range bombs from US-based B-2 stealth bombers that carry satellite-guided bombs, B-52 bombers, that can carry air-launched cruise missiles and Qatar-based B-1s that carry long-range, air-to-surface missiles, both ABC News and The New York Times reported.
"This military strike will do more damage to [Syrian President Bashar] Assad's forces in 48 hours than the Syrian rebels have done in two years," a national security official told ABC News.

Arab countries offer to bankroll invasion of Syria amid fears Assad's regime now possesses biological weapons as well

Arab countries have offered to pay for an invasion of Syria by US forces amid new fears that President Assad’s regime possesses biological as well as chemical weapons.
US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed that several states had promised they were ready to foot the bill for overthrowing Assad if America led the military operation.
Syria’s Arab neighbours are worried about the spread of the civil war and the possibility that the regime’s use of chemical or biological weapons could spill over into their backyards.
Mr Kerry spoke as Russia warned of a catastrophe if US missile strikes hit a nuclear reactor containing enriched uranium near Damascus.
Nearly six million people live in and around the Syrian capital and the Kremlin called on the IAEA, the United Nations nuclear agency, to assess the risk urgently as the US considers action to punish the Syrian regime for last month’s gas attack that killed hundreds.
‘If a warhead, by design or by chance, were to hit the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) near Damascus, the consequences could be catastrophic,’ said a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
It warned that nearby areas could be contaminated by highly enriched uranium and that it would be impossible to account for the nuclear material after such a strike, suggesting it could fall into the hands of people who might seek to use it as a weapon.

China Sends Warships To Syria, Joining Russian Warships In Mediterranean Sea

China has now joined Russia in sending warships to Syria to peacefully monitor the actions of US ships sent there by Barack Obama to commit terrorist attacks againt Syria according to this breaking story from Infowars. As the build up to WW3 rapidly escalates, will Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama do the unthinkable and launch ‘love bombs‘ towards the Syrian people based upon a ‘false flag‘ or will he back down and wait for a full investigation from the UN inspectors to be completed? China has also accused the US of lying in Syria and has stated that the US is ignoring international law.

Rep. Alan Grayson: Syria Intelligence Manipulated

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who is aggressively lobbying against a military strike on Syria, says the Obama administration has manipulated intelligence to push its case for U.S. involvement in the country's two-year civil war.
Grayson made the accusation in an interview published Wednesday by The Atlantic and offered more detail in a Thursday discussion with U.S. News. He says members of Congress are being given intelligence briefings without any evidence to support administration claims that Syrian leader Bashar Assad ordered the use of chemical weapons.
Grayson said he cannot discuss the classified briefings, but noted details in the administration's public, non-classified report are being contested.

Russia gave UN 100-page report in July blaming Syrian rebels for Aleppo sarin attack

BERLIN — Russia says a deadly March sarin attack in an Aleppo suburb was carried out by Syrian rebels, not forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, and it has delivered a 100-page report laying out its evidence to the United Nations.
A statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry website late Wednesday said the report included detailed scientific analysis of samples that Russian technicians collected at the site of the alleged attack, Khan al Asal in northern Syria. The attack killed 26 people.
A U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, confirmed that Russia delivered the report in July.
The report itself was not released. But the statement drew a pointed comparison between what it said was the scientific detail of the report and the far shorter intelligence summaries that the United States, Britain and France have released to justify their assertion that the Syrian government launched chemical weapons against Damascus suburbs on Aug. 21. The longest of those summaries, by the French, ran nine pages. Each relies primarily on circumstantial evidence to make its case, and they disagree with one another on some details, including the number of people who died in the attack.
The Russian statement warned the United States and its allies not to conduct a military strike against Syria until the United Nations had completed a similarly detailed scientific study into the Aug. 21 attack. It charged that what it called the current “hysteria” about a possible military strike in the West was similar to the false claims and poor intelligence that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Syrian rebels used Sarin nerve gas, not Assad’s regime: U.N. official

Testimony from victims strongly suggests it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, that used Sarin nerve gas during a recent incident in the revolution-wracked nation, a senior U.N. diplomat said Monday.
Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof,” that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.

But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using chemical weapons, according to the BBC, but she added that more investigation was needed.
Damascus has recently facing growing Western accusations that its forces used such weapons, which President Obama has described as crossing a red line. But Ms. del Ponte’s remarks may serve to shift the focus of international concern.
Ms. del Ponte, who in 1999 was appointed to head the U.N. war crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, has sometimes been a controversial figure. She was removed from her Rwanda post by the U.N. Security Council in 2003, but she continued as the chief prosecutor for the Yugoslav tribunal until 2008.

Report says Pentagon has known 75,000 troops would be needed in Syria since 2012

The Obama administration has been telling us that there would be no “boots on the ground” needed in Syria.

But it turns out that’s not quite true — at least if the goal is to secure the chemical weapons in that country, according to a report by my friend and colleague Joseph L. Parker.

Parker reported at Examiner:

The CRS released the report, (click here to view), on Aug. 20, that 75,000 ground forces would be needed in Syria.
The Pentagon has known since 2012, that in order to secure Syrian chemical weapons ground troops would be needed, should Assad be deposed.

He added:

In a worst-case scenario if Assad’s regime falls it will take tens of thousands of combat troops to secure Syria’s chemical and biological weapons.
Reuters reported there have been secret discussions taking place. The speculation in these meetings assume that all of Assad’s security forces might disintegrate. This would leave stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in Syria ripe for pillaging.

So, they knew a year ago it would take 75,000 troops to do this, but now it won’t…
What’s changed since then?  Or is it just another case of being lied to?

Congressman Slams John Kerry On Benghazi At Syria Hearing

During House committee hearings relating to Obama’s proposed intervention into the Syrian civil war, Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) tore into Secretary of State John Kerry over the administration’s “credibility problem.”

90,473,000: Record Number Not in Labor Force--Up Almost 10M Under Obama - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/90473000-record-number-not-labor-force-almost-10m-under-obama#sthash.tr7HTBYC.EVuYtN2Y.dpuf

90,473,000: Record Number Not in Labor Force--Up Almost 10M Under Obama -

(CNSNews.com) - The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and who have decided not to participate in the nation's labor force has pushed past 90,000,000 for the first time, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS counts a person as participating in the labor force if they are 16 years or older and either have a job or have actively sought a job in the last four weeks. A person is not participating in the labor force if they are 16 or older and have not sought a job in the last four weeks.
In July, according to BLS, 89,957,000 Americans did not participate in the labor force. In August, that climbed to 90,473,000--a one month increase of 516,000.
In January 2009, when President Barack Obama took office, there were 80,507,000 Americans not in the labor force. Thus, the number of Americans not in the labor force has increased by 9,966,000 during Obama's presidency.

Warning: Americans abducted, Obama daughter 'raped'...

As Congress debates whether to support President Obama’s call for a limited strike against Syria for the alleged use of chemical weapons, Iran is vowing to back Bashar al-Assad’s regime to the hilt and threatening to unleash terrorism should the U.S. strike.

Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Forces, Wednesday told the Assembly of Experts — the body that chooses the supreme leader — that “[w]e will support Syria to the end.”

And in an unprecedented statement, a former Iranian official has warned of mass abductions and brutal killings of American citizens around the world and the rape and killing of one of Obama’s daughters should the United States attack Syria.

Free Syrian Army FSA "Moderates' Behead 24 Passengers on Bus, Including a Mother and Her 40-day old Baby

More of John McCain's "moderates" and Obama's rebels. America should be backing the Christians, Kurds and religious minorities. Obama's half-assed military strike is madness.
FSA Muslim Terrorists Behead 24 Passengers on Bus to Include a Mother and Her 40-day old Baby Sharia Unveiled (source: http://en.alalam.ir/news)
Al-Qaeda linked terrorists in Syria have beheaded all 24 Syrian passengers traveling from Tartus to Ras al-Ain in northeast of Syria, among them a mother and a 40-day old infant. 
Gunmen from the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and Levant stopped the bus on the road in Talkalakh and killed everyone before setting the bus on fire.
According to media reports, the attack was carried out because the passengers who were from three different villages in Ras al-Ain, supported anti-terrorist Kurdish groups which were formed recently to defend Kurdish population against anti-Syria terrorists.
Bodies of the mother and her 40-day old infant were also seen among the dead, which were recognized by their relatives. 
Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim warned on Friday that the Kurd minority is facing an ethnic cleansing by al-Qaeda terrorists.

While there is no end in sight to the bloody foreign-fueled conflict in Syria, another front has been formed between the Kurdish militia and extremist militants in Northern Syria.
Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups operating in the country, including the al-Nusra Front, are trying to capture Kurdish territories and make them part of a state they want to create in the region. Following deadly attacks on Kurdish regions in recent months, groups of Kurdish militia were formed to protect their people.
Anti-Syria armed groups continue to target civilians amid US threats against Syrian army and government which have made militants find it easier to widen their attacks. Following worldwide criticism, US President Barack Obama delayed an imminent military strike against Syria on August 31, sending the matter to the Congress to get more support.

FLASHBACK: Biden accused Romney of wanting war with Syria

Sept. 2, 2012, YORK, Pa. (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday that Republican rival Mitt Romney is “ready to go to war in Syria and Iran” while hurting the middle class.
The warning came during a campaign stop in York, Pa., designed to promote President Barack Obama’s economic policies among white, working-class voters. The thrust of Biden’s pitch has been that America is digging out from the 2008 economic collapse and that Romney would take the country backward. But Biden, a foreign policy heavyweight, also cautioned voters that Romney would adopt policies that favor confrontation over cooperation.
“He said it was a mistake to end the war in Iraq and bring all of our warriors home,” Biden said of Romney. “He said it was a mistake to set an end date for our warriors in Afghanistan and bring them home. He implies by the speech that he’s ready to go to war in Syria and Iran.”

Biden made the claim about Syria and Iran without offering specifics; his campaign did not immediately respond to a request for details and he did not use similar language on Syria and Iran at a later stop in Green Bay, Wis.
Romney’s campaign dismissed the criticism. “It’s no wonder that a politician who has been wrong about every major foreign policy question of the last 30 years is wrong on every count about Gov. Romney’s strategy to restore America’s leadership role in the world,” spokeswoman Amanda Hennenberg said.
Romney has said he would consider military action in Syria if the war-torn country’s chemical weapons were at risk of falling into the wrong hands. Obama, who has opposed military action in Syria, has made similar remarks, calling it a “red line” for the U.S. if Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime were to use chemical or biological weapons.
And like Obama, Romney has said the U.S. must keep all options on the table, including a military strike, when dealing with Iran. But Romney has suggested that Obama has been too soft on Iran and — without offering specifics himself — said he would prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

-