Paper: Leaked documents show US funding opponents of Syrian government

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Paper: Leaked documents show US funding opponents of Syrian government
By Associated Press, Monday, April 18, 12:13 AM

WASHINGTON — The State Department has been secretly financing opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad, The Washington Post reported, citing previously undisclosed diplomatic documents provided to the newspaper by the WikiLeaks website.

One of the outfits funded by the U.S. is Barada TV, a London-based satellite channel that broadcasts anti-government news into Syria, the Post reported Sunday. Barada’s chief editor, Malik al-Abdeh, is a cofounder of the Syrian exile group Movement for Justice and Development.

The leaked documents show that the U.S. has provided at least $6 million to Barada TV and other opposition groups inside Syria, the newspaper said.

The Obama administration has reached out to Assad’s regime, hoping to persuade it to change its policies regarding Israel, Lebanon, Iraq and support for extremist groups. In January, the U.S. stationed an ambassador in Damascus, the capital, for the first time in five years.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/paper-leaked-documents-show-us-funding-opponents-of-syrian-government/2011/04/18/AFVEbuwD_story.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr

[Judi Lynn]

2. U.S. secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, cables released by WikiLeaks show

U.S. secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, cables released by WikiLeaks show
By Craig Whitlock, Sunday, April 17, 11:01 PM

The State Department has secretly financed Syrian political opposition groups and related projects, including a satellite TV channel that beams anti-government programming into the country, according to previously undisclosed diplomatic cables.

The London-based satellite channel, Barada TV, began broadcasting in April 2009 but has ramped up operations to cover the mass protests in Syria as part of a long-standing campaign to overthrow the country’s autocratic leader, Bashar al-Assad. Human rights groups say scores of people have been killed by Assad’s security forces since the demonstrations began March 18; Syria has blamed the violence on “armed gangs.”

Barada TV is closely affiliated with the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based network of Syrian exiles. Classified U.S. diplomatic cables show that the State Department has funneled as much as $6 million to the group since 2006 to operate the satellite channel and finance other activities inside Syria. The channel is named after the Barada River, which courses through the heart of Damascus, the Syrian capital.

The U.S. money for Syrian opposition figures began flowing under President George W. Bush after he effectively froze political ties with Damascus in 2005. The financial backing has continued under President Obama, even as his administration sought to rebuild relations with Assad. In January, the White House posted an ambassador to Damascus for the first time in six years.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-secretly-backed-syrian-opposition-groups-cables-released-by-wikileaks-show/2011/04/14/AF1p9hwD_story.html

[Rex]

3. So we hate Syria, but love to use their torture rooms.

Okay thanks, got it.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Maybe MG is right, all this trouble is being started by US meddling.

Seems to be the pattern around the world.

It does explain our selective interference in who's "freedom" we want to propel.

[iwishiwas]

5. Keep your enemies close.

[indimuse]

6. of course..

I've posting about THE PLAN for a while now.
WESLEY CLARK STATES "The TRUTH IS about the Middle East IS...HAD THERE BEEN NO OIL THERE ..it would be like Africa ~ Nobody's THREATNING to interveene in Africa ~ The problem is the opposite..WE KEEP ASKING for people to intervene and STOP IT! "
"Definately theres always been this attitude that somehow we could intervene and use force in the region."

THE PLAN:: an interview with Wesley Clark (Ret.), explains that the Bush Administration planned to take out 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Lybia, Somalia, Sudan, Iran


MIC

[joshcryer]

7. Under the bus you go, Syrian protesters.

:puke:

[pampango]

11. Yep. The idea that citizens might like oppressive dictators whether they are pro-US or anti-US

seems not to be a factor to many in deciding whether they support or oppose revolutions in different countries.

I would like to think that I would revolt against an oppressive dictator in the US whether he came in the form of Hitler or Stalin. I suppose it would be inevitable, though, that my revolution would be cast as "fascist" (I'm a tool of the capitalists) or "communist" (I'm a tool of the global socialism) or, in the modern age, as "terrorist" (I'm a tool of Al Queda) by detractors depending on which type of dictator I was revolting against.

The idea that the poor schmucks in Egypt or Bahrain or Libya or Syria can't possibly be dissatisfied with dictatorial rule and stage a revolution on their own without instigation from the West or from Iran or from Al Queda or some other source of "wisdom" is demeaning to the people in those countries. Are 'they' supposed to be content one-man rule lasting 30 to 40 years then handed off to a son to continue another few decades? Is that how Arabs are "supposed to be"? 'They' may just be people like the rest of us who want a voice in our own futures, not just to hope that each dictator is more benevolent than the last one.

[notesdev]

8. And in Libya?

We can only assume that that "rebellion" has "Made in the C.I.A." stamped all over it as well.

I don't suppose the President would care to put a stop to this apparently-autonomous, freelance foreign policy being conducted on the US taxpayer dime?

[joshcryer]

9. Speak for yourself.

Egypt was "planned" for http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8289698/Egypt-protests-secret-US-document-discloses-support-for-protesters.html">2 years before it happened. Shouldn't sully what a 3 million Egyptians did. But in the minds of the corrupt, it does.

[notesdev]

10. What the Egyptians did?

You mean, replace a dictator with a military junta? Who do I congratulate on this accomplishment?

You do realize they're going to have to do it again if they are going to have any semblance of freedom, right?

[Alamuti Lotus]

13. "3 million Egyptians"

The military carried out a coup to prevent 3 million Egyptians from accomplishing anything, whether it is sullied or not by some chumps on the internet is irrelevant in the face of actual affairs on the ground and in backrooms. Only the privileges and interests of the Egyptian 1%, the Ikwanis, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States have been served by Tantawi's Republic (recall that the field marshal was known as Mubarak's Poodle; hardly a revolutionary figure by the wildest stretch of any imagination). Your selective and often blind worship of really tangible state and imperialist power continues to confound me, for you speak a fairly honest radical game when it comes to strictly theoretical matters.

As to the original subject; there are indeed some really nasty, collaborationist (often overlapping) elements submerged within the opposition in these affairs. Denying the premise of that, so strongly as is done with an almost childlike naivety, is as foolish as the equally ridiculous and uninformed converse argument, that is to say that all forces at work are as such. For example, the figure of former Qadhdhafi stooge Mustafa Abdul Jalil as the self-styled commander of the self-styled ruling council of the Libyan resistance;--the fact that he has all the markings of being as much a brutal authoritarian as the self-styled Colonel, and being an enthusiastic collaborationist robber baron to boot, discredits very little of the virtue of those on the front lines -- the fact that they cannot organize or shoot straight to quite literally save their lives, however, does plenty of discrediting, but that is another story..

[fascisthunter]

12. boy, our government seems to have tons of money for foreign countries

but not for the good Americans working their asses off to make ends meet.

[BlueJac]

14. the USA seems to be the evil empire.....

spreading freedom

[Bragi]

15. Thanks again, Wikileaks!

As with other leaks from Wikileaks, this one confirms an official strategy that was long suspected, but which the US always denied.

I prefer things being open and transparent, and once again applaud Wikileaks for revealing what is actually happening with US foreign policy.

[No Elephants]

17. +1

[Baclava]

16. So is it working? - - "Thousands demand overthrow of Assad after deaths"

Mon, 18 Apr, 2011

AMMAN (Reuters) - Thousands demanded the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday at the funeral of eight protesters killed in the central city of Homs as unrest swelled despite a promise to lift emergency law.

"Homs is boiling. The security forces and the regime thugs have been provoking armed tribes for a month now," a rights activist told Reuters from the city. Civilians who taken to the streets "were shot at in cold blood," he said. Activists in Homs said the eight were killed late on Sunday during protests against the death in custody of a tribal leader.

Wissam Tarif, a rights activist in contact with people in Syria, said the toll was higher and he had the names of 12 people killed in the city.

"From alleyway to alleyway, from house to house, we want to overthrow you, Bashar," the mourners chanted, according to a witness at the funeral.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/syrian-forces-kill-8-protesters-homs-activist-20110418-025827-195.html