Events in Syria Lead Back to Israeli Report of Imminent US-Led Attack from Jordan
Last edited Sun Aug 25, 2013, 10:16 AM - Edit history (1)
On August 17, DEBKAfile, an Israeli defense blog reported that Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was in Jordan inspecting command and control facilities from which the source reported, the U.S. would lead an attack coordinated with Jordan and Israel on Syria.
Gen. Dempsey in Jordan (Aug. 14)
That story has been little reported, except to feed follow-on rumors that the Syrian Army (we're now told by DEBKA is under the personal command of the one-legged, one-armed brother of Bashar Assad) had personally commanded Syrian troops firing off Sarin rounds from a mountaintop north of Damascus in an effort to target these same FSA and Jordanian Special Forces troops that a few days earlier were crossing the border into Southern Syria. http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-Syrian-rebel-forces-trained-by-West-are-moving-towards-Damascus-324033
Here's an extract from the DEBKAfile report originally published a week ago, three days before the incident in Ghouta north of Damascus. (Note that Gen. Dempsey's letter of August 19 to a NY Congressman on Tuesday was strongly skeptical of the utility of an actual U.S. military role in Syria. http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/08/21/2501781/national-security-brief-top-us-military-officer-skeptical-of-syria-intervention/)
Here's the DEBKAfile report of August 17: http://www.debka.com/article/23199/
Another section is designed to coordinate operations between US and Jordanian special forces, as well as the units trained in commando combat by US instructors in Jordan. A closed section houses CIA personnel who control the work of US agents going in and out of Syria and also a communications center. In his briefing to US forces Thursday, Aug. 15, Gen. Dempsey commented: “Jordan lives in a very volatile region and at a very critical time in its history. They can count on us to continue to be their partner.”
He suggested that the operation could continue well into next year or beyond. Situated atop the underground facility is a large surface structure accommodating the American military and civilian offices dealing with Syrian issues from Jordan. It is guarded by US and Jordanian security units.
There are today some 1,000 US military personnel in the Hashemite Kingdom, plus a squadron of F-16 fighters and several Patriot anti-missile batteries strung along the Jordanian-Syrian border to shield Jordanian and American bases and the capital, Amman. Obama’s final decision on US military intervention – consisting of a no fly and a buffer zone in Syria – is expected in the coming two to three weeks, depending on Dempsey’s recommendations upon his return to Washington after checking out preparations in Israel and Jordan. In neither operation will US boots touch Syrian soil.
Several possibilities come immediately to mind from this. First, the article may have actually provoked the Syrian military to attack what they believed was a second group of foreign-led commandos arriving from Turkey reported to have been in or near Ghouta on Wednesday, and that these troops were the actual target of the gas barrage. If this is accurate, the reported civilian casualties may have been incidental to the bombardment.
Or, another possible explanation is that this Israeli report last Saturday was part of an elaborate disinformation and deception campaign that involved opposition elements, or their handlers, who launched a poisoned gas rocket attack that could be blamed on the regime, timed to coincide with the arrival of UN inspectors, that killed several hundred people.
Either way, it appears that if there is any truth to these prior reports of an invading force of Special Forces trained by the U.S., there is far more to this story than has been otherwise reported by most of the western media.
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