Hey Balint,

I definitely agree. It’s been portrayed as a monstrous force, but I haven’t heard anything about ISIS gaining more territory since it has been up against the Kurds and US airstrikes.

From the maps I’ve seen, it looks like ISIS really only has control over a few key cities and the roads connecting them. Everything else in between as ISIS territory appears to be mostly uninhabited. What do you think about this?

I tend to agree with the author in general, however Isis and other Islamist terrorist groups are likely to succeed in recruiting more young unemployed and largely marginalized men as long as the region continues to suffer from conflicts and brutal and corrupt regimes.
Turkey , israel and the GCC in particular are not likely to help defeat Isis because they see Iran as a continuous threat and (in Israel’s case) refuse to give justice to Palestinians.
NATO, GCC and Israel three pillars of policies in the region are: opposition to Iran, support for Israel and the protection of goat states in the GCC, the well being of ordinary Muslims is not on their agenda .

I just hope that the next article will not be titled “let’s negotiate with Isis”.
Kerry’s visit to SA was timed very badly,it was an insult for all the relatives of the Americans killed in 9/11,couldn’t he choose another day or is it a pilgrimage to his oily bosses to assure them that there is no hard feeling whatsoever,just please buy more arms from USA.

IS won’t be destroyed without Syria change

By PJ Crowley
Former US Assistant Secretary of State

“until he has a political solution to Syria, he does not have a strategy to destroy IS”

I want to use this opportunity, and so, Mr. BALINT SZLANKO
you are also following the Ukrainian conflict, as we see here: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/BALINT-SZLANKO.ashx#axzz3DEUDeEGb
please tell me:
what the Polish insurgents private military company ASBS Othago (Analizy Systemowe Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz do in Ukraine?

According to reports, the Polish Private Military Company lost during the punitive operation in eastern Ukraine, 6 person (the other loss of foreign mercenaries from obeying junta Sonderkommanden fall to the share of the American private military companies Asademi and its “daughter» Greystone Limited Private Military Company – 50 and 14 militants, respectively, as well as the CIA and the FBI – 25 employees, of whom 13 were killed).
http://www.fondsk.ru/news/2014/05/26/za-chto-vouuyt-na-ukraine-polskie-eskadrony-smerti-27674.html

According to a member of Mosul city council, 3 out of 12 ISIS leaders in the city are from Syria, the man also said that ISIS has some Kurds and even few Yazidis (hard to believe I guess).
It is obvious now that the GCC is using ISIS to blackmail NATO about Iran, Iraq and Syria, I never bought the lie that the GCC will fight ISIS, they may be forced to pay money to finance NATO operations but they will not kill the baby they create.

Good reminder. Balint Szlanko’s lead article above reinforces that Assad could have easily attacked and weakened ISIS but chose not to.

Instead the regime allowed ISIS to survive and thrive, building its strongest, most secure base in Raqqa without interference.

EXCERPT from “Assad has never fought ISIS before”:

“When Islamic radicals took over Raqqa, the first province to fall under rebels’ control in its entirety, it was remarkable that the regime did not follow the same policy it had consistently employed elsewhere, which is to shower liberated territories with bombs, day and night.

“Raqqa was saved the fate of Deir Ezzor, Aleppo, Homs and Deraa. ISIS soon controlled the province, painted government buildings in black and turned them into bases. The group’s bases were easy to spot, for about a year and a half. Elsewhere, too, Assad allowed ISIS to grow and fester. The regime has been buying oil from it and other extremist groups after it lost control of most of the country’s oilfields and gas plants.

“One might argue that Assad’s strategy was a cynical game and that once he is assured of his survival, he would be well-positioned to fight the group. But even that argument ignores basic dynamics: If Assad genuinely wants to fight ISIS today, he is as capable of doing that as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was when ISIS took over three Iraq provinces. ISIS controls large swathes in rebel-held Syria, areas that have been outside the regime’s control for one to three years.”

(http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/08/22/should-the-us-work-with-assad-to-fight-isis/assad-has-never-fought-isis-before)

A promising move by Qatar but still a long way to go.

Doha is starting to kick out the Muslim Brotherhood:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/world/middleeast/bowing-to-pressure-qatar-asks-some-muslim-brotherhood-leaders-to-leave.html?_r=0

As expected, Turkey is guilty of aiding terrorists, what is different is that a US diplomat is publically speaking about it. This is from the Telegraph-UK:

Turkey has directly supported al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria in defiance of the United States, the former American ambassador to Ankara has said.
The Turkish authorities thought they could work with extremist Islamist groups in the Syrian civil war and at the same time push them to become more moderate, Francis Ricciardone, who was until late June the US ambassador to Ankara, told journalists in a briefing.
That led them to work with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s branch, as well as hardline Salafi Islamist groups like Ahrar al-Sham. Mr Ricciardone said that he tried to persuade the Turkish government to close its borders to the groups, but to no avail.
“We ultimately had no choice but to agree to disagree,” he said. “The Turks frankly worked with groups for a period, including al Nusra, whom we finally designated as we’re not willing to work with.”
Turkey allowed its borders to be used as a conduit for aid, weapons and volunteers heading for the Syrian rebel cause from the start of the uprising, and there have long been accusations that it did not do enough to distinguish between “moderate” groups and extremists.

Turkey and the fight against Islamist terrorism:
you can not make chicken soup out of chicken poop

Pathetic but predictable.

I said on this forum two years ago that “holy warrior” fantasists rushing to Syria would end up bawling like babies wanting to be rescued by their home governments.

Reports now say dozens of British jihadists want to come home but are afraid of a 30 year jail sentence. They are desperately looking for ways to negotiate their return with the UK authorities.

But too late. Those wannabe returnees are being rounded up for ruthless punishment by their ISIS teammates.

Many foreign fighters in ISIS are increasingly under suspicion and danger from within as outside forces gather to strike ISIS. The fun’s over but they find they aren’t free to leave. And even if they escape, they are not welcome back home.

Remember! ISIS is acronym for the Official Israeli Mossad Intelligence:
300 Americans, CIA Agents Fighting Within ISIL Ranks in Syria and Iraq: US Political Commentator
https://public.isishq.com/public/SitePages/Home.aspx
http://www.internationalsecurityandintelligenceservices.com/index.html
http://youtu.be/iLqdpMwulPQ?t=1s
***
Remember!
the basis of the U.N. Charter, Article 2 , paragraph 4, “ “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
SO American fighter planes, which violate the Syrian airspace must shoot down.

It is unreasonable to continue the KSA arrogance in prolong the suffering of the SUNNI people before the others in Syria and the shedding of SUNNI Syrian blood without any response to all of this quantum of criminality.
Every Saudi dollar causes killing the SUNNI Syrian people before the others. The ruling establishment in KSA painfully must be shaken in response !! Syrians must innovate in how to respond.

Any explanation? Is it done by Saudi intelligence to conduct a series of assassinations of leaders of these various militias in order to be a subject for the Wahhabi-American agenda ?
http://investmentwatchblog.com/explosion-kills-50-islamic-commanders-opposed-to-isis/

ALAN you must be reading the wrong sources again.

Get your nose out of the “Conspiracy Gazette” look around and you’ll find plenty of better informed and more rational comments on the explosion that killed Ahrar al-Sham’s leaders.

Why do you give ‘Saudi intelligence’ magical powers and competencies they have never had?

Probably the same reason you give Vladimir Putin all sorts of imaginary qualities and achievements that are the opposite of truth and reality.

You’ve read it in the “Conspiracy Gazette”.

Tweet:

# Syrian rebels can’t be blamed if refuse to be used as cannon fodder against IS while Asad’s barrel-bombs keep falling. Need to fix this

– Thomas Pierret (https://twitter.com/ThomasPierret)

For Syria’s war to end and for terrorists to be defeated a cease fire has to be reached even if it keeps rebels in control of certain areas as long as they stop shelling cities and attacking the Syrian army. This war should not have started in the first place and Bashar should not have been crowned a king in 2000 .
There was a Syria before this war and there will be a Syria after.
Look at Qatar , ksa and Turkey and tell me how good their involvement in Syria has been, then direct your attention to Iran and try to tell me how helpful that country has been in ending the war or convincing the regime to compromise.
Most of those who died were Syrian, all of the refugees are Syrian and those who paid the highest price for this war were Syrian.
You shall forgive but never forget ..

GHUFRAN, ALAN might read and quote the “Conspiracy Gazette” but your words smell like you write for it.

I am still feeling disgusted at your post in the last thread where you urge people to write the following lying, silly comment to US congress members:

“According to CIA officers testimonies and numerous western accounts from the battle field and video testimonies from previous FSA leaders, there are no moderate rebels in Syria”.

OMEN correctly remarked, exposing your game:

.”[Ghufran’s] “no moderates” charge is a crude way of discounting all syrians, also meant to dissuade against intervention and acts as a sort of psychic salve meant to give us comfort for ignoring assad wage mass murder (we’re not supposed to care if all the dead are terrorists)….”

He’s right. You should squirm in shame. At least others here are clear and honest about which side they are on.

GHUFRAN your post in #15 above is a typical attempt to speak out of both sides of your mouth.

Do you realize that your hypocritical words about all those poor Syrians who have paid a price and the failure of the Iranians to end the Syrian crisis (you are right there!) still read like coded support and excuses for Assad?

Let´s say it simple, fuxxx the sadistic Assads, the corrupt tainted Baathists, the crazy Al Qaeda Jihadists and the anti-Allah Teocratic Iranian Jihadists.

Remember: about (moderates!)- One of the classic definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, in precisely the same way, yet expecting a different outcome.

Hadi Al-Bahra of the SNC claimed that his party and the FSA will be ready to take over areas currently occupied by ISIS if the US led coalition manages to kick the terrorists out, Bahra did not mention whether any rebel group gives a chicken behind about what he says, he also ignored the fact that the Nusra terrorist group and a number of Islamist militias are now the dominating fighting forces in Syria, and none of them recognizes Mr.Bahra and his friends.
Dear Thawrajiyyeh: do not blame others for the failure of rebels to win and topple the regime, only blame yourselves and your leaders, the history of this war is full of stories and incidents that explain why Syrians decided to hate the regime but not fall in love with the rebels who turned out to be thieves and religious zealots who outdid the regime thugs and made a bad situation much worse.

GHUFRAN issues more conflicting messages, pouring out of both sides of the mouth…

Some of it is toxic and outrageous.

GHUFRAN states in #20 that all Syrians who fought Assad are thieves and religious extremists.

He then tells us they “outdid the regime thugs” (a regime proudly carrying out aerial and chemical warfare, starvation sieges against civilians, physical destruction of Syria’s housing and infrastructure, industrial scale torture centres, and mass displacement of half the country’s population through mass bombing and state terror campaigns against civilians.)

Then, amazingly, he sneers and blames those who rebelled against Assad for failing to “win and topple the regime”. The regime of a failed and desperate dictator who hijacked and used Syria’s military resources to burn the country and keep himself in power. BUT THEN STILL only survived because of full-on military and financial assistance of outside power Iran and the sponsorship of Russia.

Really, what is the game, what is the aim behind statements like GHUFRAN’s?

It is not surprising that the proposed coalition to defeat Isis is limping already especially after key regional and international players were either left out or did not seem interested.
At the core is the fact that governments that funded and supported Islamist terrorists like the GCC and Turkish regimes were given a free pass and have not been confronted yet, another problem is the lack of any vision of how to fill the void if the troubled coalition surprises everybody and takes serious military actions to degrade Isis.
Relying on a fractured and unreliable group of ” moderate rebels” reflects either an utter ignorance about the situation in Syria or an alarming level of indifference, I tend to believe the latter possibility.
NATO boneheads keep talking about a political solution but they seem to be talking to themselves and their puppet regimes, if you want to make peace you speak with people you do not necessarily like, otherwise what you are actually doing is pretending and prolonging the suffering of Syrians.

21. SYRIALOVER:
(a regime proudly carrying out aerial and chemical warfare, starvation sieges against civilians, physical destruction of Syria’s housing and infrastructure, industrial scale torture centres, and mass displacement of half the country’s population through mass bombing and state terror campaigns against civilians.)

How advises others (Get your nose out of the “Conspiracy Gazette”) and you yourself speak the language of John McCain and neocons?

I commented on the subject of demonization the others previously. No one has demonized George W.Bush or Tony Blair. Are they find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Every American President in the past quarter century has decided to bomb Iraq

http://hw.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/bomb-iraq.jpg

“Just two hours ago, allied air forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait.” —President George H. W. Bush

—President George H. W. Bush
January 16, 1991

“Good evening. Earlier today, I ordered America’s armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq.”

—President Bill Clinton
December 16, 1998

“My fellow citizens. At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.”

—President George W. Bush
March 19, 2003

“My fellow Americans. Tonight, I want to speak to you about what the United States will do with our friends and allies to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.”

—President Barack Obama
September 10, 2014

Every American President in the past quarter century has now gone on television during prime time to tell the nation and the world that he has decided to bomb Iraq.

21. SYRIALOVER said:
(Get your nose out of the “Conspiracy Gazette”)

UNFORTUNATELY Such is the AMERICAN WAY OF THINKING

http://youtu.be/ZpTmpU7KBRY?t=1s

Someone’s Already Fighting ISIS: The Syrian Arab Army
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2014/09/15/someone-s-already-fighting-isis-the-syrian-arab-army/
Since 2011, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has waged a relentless war within Syrian territory against what it has said from the very beginning was an invasion of heavily armed, foreign-backed sectarian extremists. In retrospect, the transparently ludicrous nature of articles like the Guardian’s “Syria’s rebels unite to oust Assad and push for democracy” is self-evident. The article would lay out Syria’s claims side by side with the West’s narrative by stating:

In one of the fiercest clashes of the insurrection, Syrian troops finally took control of the town of Rastan after five days of intense fighting with army defectors who sided with protesters. Syrian authorities said they were fighting armed terrorist gangs.

At the request of Mr. Syria Lover will try to be out of the “Conspiracy Gazette”

Islamist rebels are in bed with Turkey and Israel.. Erdugang refused to join the war against Isis because he helped Isis terrororists get in and he bought oil from them at special prices then he sold the oil through Jihan port. Iraqi and Kurdish forces found Turkish made ammunition at position evacuated bu Isis. Now Erdugang is considering establishing a buffer zone in southern turkey to solidify his gains and probably annex land from both countries. Rebels in the south are working with Israel to establish a similar zone in Qnaitra in southern Syria, in return rebels are receiving accommodations and medical and logistical help from Israel, that is why you will not see a single shot fired at Israel by rebels, instead those terrorists kidnapped UN peace keepers to justify receiving $ 20 million from Qatar to finance their war efforts while helping qatar look like a peace maker. It takes a fool to miss the obvious connection between rebels and the two countries with territorial ambitions, Israel and Turkey.

one disappears for three months, one come back for a visit, one finds Alan still in lala land and the other one still trying to be secularian but keeps failing miserably.

I hope that what you say proves true.