Canadian Troops given Viagara to encourage rape ??

You like that title? I chose it with great care. For a specific reason.
First: to grab your attention. 
Second: to make you, the reader, think about how information is presented to you.
Sensational. Emotionally charged.


 This past weekend in the print edition of the Toronto Star there was an interesting article

"There could soon be less spring in the step of those at National Defence as the department considers halting the decade-long practice of distributing free Viagra to the troops.

Within government, officials have expressed concern for years about the rising cost of the wildly popular Viagra program, which saw members limited to six of the little blue pills a month — at a cost of $15-$22 per pill. The drug is used to treat erectile dysfunction in men.

When introduced in 2000, the government justified supplying the prescription wonder drug to troops as a health policy meant to ensure all soldiers were mentally fit and ready for the battlefield.

Mentally fit and ready for the battlefield? 

What the hell does that mean?

Ready for the battlefield? Like this?

Gaddafi 'supplies troops with Viagra to encourage mass rape', claims diplomat

If we were supposed to believe that Gaddafi 'supplied' troops with Viagara to encourage mass rape...

The next question, that begs asking, have Canadian Troops been given Viagara to encourage rape?

 Is this how they are made battlefield ready? With their little blue pills?

Six pills a month. Hours of erect battlefield readiness.

BTW:

"Both the U.S. and Australia have similar programs of passing out free pills to their soldiers"

Battlefield ready. 

Another article here 

I am not, myself, suggesting that the reason for the Viagara distribution is nefarious.
It could be? Then again it could not be?
The corporate/main stream media will do that for us when they chose to.
They will suggest to us, the readers, something nefarious. As was done with the Libyan military news story.
The audience just has to let themselves get caught up in outrage and other irrational emotional responses.
That is how propaganda  works. That is how your perception is managed. How the reader is manipulated.

The Canadian news story was spun with humour and light heartedness "less spring in the step" 
They are virtually the same stories.
 Except for one glaring problem- we never knew if the Libyan story was true. 
We know the Canadian story is. The Canadian media is covering it as a cost issue.


What about this?

 The infamous Canadian Killer Colonel.

A trained killer, purportedly on anti-depressants, with access to free Viagara? 
What a mind bending brew!
Colonel Russell Williams
I have a number of posts here,  here,  or here on this monster
Additionally another military rapist

Libya's former Oil chief found floating in the Danube

Don't you worry. Foul play is NOT a factor.
And if you believe that........

                                           Shokri Ghanem

Libya's former top oil industry official, Shokri Ghanem, has been found floating dead in the River Danube in Austria, police said on Sunday.

Ghanem, 69, had been chairman of Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) before defecting last year several months after opponents of Muammar Gaddafi had risen up against the Libyan leader and begun a rebellion.

As NOC chairman since 2006, Ghanem helped steer Libya's oil policy and held the high-profile job of representing Libya at OPEC meetings, often visiting Vienna for meetings in that role.

"He was found dead in the Danube river at 8:40 a.m. EDT (0640 GMT). There is no suspicion at all of foul play at this stage. The corpse exhibited no signs of violence," a Vienna police spokesman said.

He was believed to have been living in Europe in exile since then but was still closely associated with Gaddafi's rule by Libya's new leaders and had ruled out returning home.

Why wouldn't he return home if he has been closely associated with the new NATO leaders?

Wouldn't you think there would have been some nice rewards laying in wait? 

From this article

“There would be no signs of violence if someone pushed him in,” Mr Hahslinger said. “But it’s also possible that he became ill and fell into the water.”

An Austrian foreign ministry official (notice the official is UNNAMED????) said family members initially told the ministry that Mr Ghanem, 69, had died of a heart attack, adding that their version appeared to be plausible.

 The heart attack story from the unnamed official is the cover story. We have no idea what the family said or didn't say.

Someone killed this man and threw him in the Danube. Obviously he was not associated with the NATO regime in what is left of Libya.

Did he really defect?

Libyan weapons seized in Lebanon- headed for NATO's terrorists in Syria

Only the first 20 seconds is relevant, the rest is the usual media perception management!


Weapons bound for Syria seized in Lebanon by euronews-en

Who organized this shipment? 

Since we know NATO’s goons are running Libya, simply connect the dots.

Lebanese authorities seized a large consignment of Libyan weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy calibre ammunition from a ship intercepted in the Mediterranean, the army said on Saturday.

Labelling on one box said it contained fragmentation explosives, and several identified them as coming from Libya.

One was marked "Tripoli/Benghazi SPLAJ", referring to Libya's formal name during the 42-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi - the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

Another was stamped Misrata, the Libyan town which formed a base for rebels who overthrew Gaddafi last year in one of several uprising which swept the Arab world.

Misrata is contained with the 'independant' Eastern Libyan state that is aNATO protectorate

This "independent" eastern Libya would-be emirate is already recognized by a few countries, Sarkozy's France included. No wonder; it is already configured as a NATO protectorate.

Therefore these weapons, originating from Libya, would have had to leave with the full knowledge of  NATO. It would be pretty hard to think otherwise.

A thought-  Though this type of warfare would be called a covert,  if you have been paying attention long enough, you realize just how overt and in your face this weapons shipment really is. It has been very clear for a long, long time now that NATO has it's sites set on Syria.




You may recall that after the NATO bloodbath in Libya there was much fretting about the Libyan armaments falling into the 'wrong' hands....


There were a number of concerns expressed at that time. Scenarios.
I entertained one myself

 "Al-Qaeda's North African branch, AQIM, has expanded from northern Niger, Mali and Mauritania into northern Nigeria and southern Senegal.

How swimmingly does that work out for the Western/NATO world army?
The seed planted with news of looting in Libya. Al quaeda/quaida. Always there when western powers need them.

Reviewing: We have armed activists and Al quaeda flooding into Syria. 
What we need is a people's army.. Yes, a people's army for all the fighters and arms to flow to
Cue: Free Syrian Army.
Is this for real?
Or, are these Al Quaeda members imported in from elsewhere?

Weapons from Libya- check!
"Free Syrian Army' appearing - check!
Who was instrumental in making this happen- Why our great AVAAZ  humanitarian Wissam Tarif- from Lebanon

Recall this?

The Telegraph has also learned that preliminary discussions about arms supplies took place when members of the Turkish-based Syrian National Council [SNC] — the country's main opposition movement — visited Libya earlier this month.

"The Libyans are offering money, training and weapons to the Syrian National Council," added Wissam Tariff, a human rights campaigner with links to the SNC.

And AVAAZ.
The scummiest human rights organization of them all. Or maybe one of many?


Back to today's weapons confiscation-

The army said in a statement the weapons were found in three containers carried by the Sierra Leone-flagged Letfallah II, which was impounded along with its 11-man crew and taken to a navy port in Beirut.

Khafaji said a broker from Lebanon (Wissam Tarif?) had made contact, asking originally for a shipment of 12 containers of "general cargo" to be shipped from Libya to Lebanon. In the end, after two days' delay, the ship left with just the three containers, he said. Incredible. Truly. How many Syrians would NATO's terrorists have killed with these weapons?



Some further news-
Syria takes Ban Ki-moon to task. Justifiably. For his one sided condemnations which serve to embolden the NATO terrorists-

Tishrin said Ban has avoided discussing rebel violence in favour of "outrageous" attacks on the Syrian government.

 "The continued disregard of the international community and its cover for armed groups' crimes and terrorist acts ... is considered as direct participation in facilitating and carrying out the terrorism to which Syria is subjected," the editorial said.

"Such a stance seemingly encourages those groups to go on committing more crimes and terrorist acts," Tishrin said.

It most certainly does.

-The Syrian capital was hit by four explosions on Friday that left at least 11 people dead and dozens wounded.
- Military units stationed off the Mediterranean foiled an infiltration attempt by "armed groups" from the sea in the early hours of the day.

How come whenever NATO's extremist  nut jobs appear, suicide bombers blow themselves up?

-There was also a horrific suicide bombing, that killed many.

Oh Canada? "The Biggest Student Uprising You've never heard of "

Dedicated to all the students in Quebec who have peacefully hit the streets to protest AUSTERITY!
I had no idea that there were so many of you protesting
As is so typical the msm is absent/downplaying and lying!
They do not want the rest of Canada aware. They do not want the rest of the world aware.
Protestors are being attacked by the Surete de Quebec. (provincial police force)
The Surete has a history of brutality. The Surete has a history of using provocateurs.

I have borrowed this entirely from Axis of Logic-

 We hear endlessly about so called protestors in Syria and their government oppression. Which is bullshit.
In Canada the NATO media complies with the powers that be, therefore large protests against Austerity do not exist

On an unseasonably warm day in late March, a quarter of a million postsecondary students and their supporters gathered in the streets of Montreal to protest against the Liberal government’s plan to raise tuition fees by 75% over five years.  As the crowd marched in seemingly endless waves from Place du Canada, dotted with the carrés rouges, or red squares, that have become the symbol of the Quebec student movement, it was plainly obvious that this demonstration was the largest in Quebec’s, and perhaps Canadian, history.

The March 22nd Manifestation nationale was not the culmination but the midpoint of a 10-week-long student uprising that has seen, at its height, over 300,000 college and university students join an unlimited and superbly coordinated general strike.  As of today, almost 180,000 students remain on picket lines in departments and faculties that have been shuttered since February, not only in university-dense Montreal but also in smaller communities throughout Quebec.

The strike has been supported by near-daily protest actions ranging from family-oriented rallies to building occupations and bridge blockades, and, more recently, by a campaign of political and economic disruption directed against government ministries, crown corporations, and private industry.  Although generally peaceful, these actions have met with increasingly brutal acts of police violence: Student protesters are routinely beaten, pepper-sprayed, and tear-gassed by riot police, and one, Francis Grenier, lost an eye after being hit by a flashbang grenade at close range.  Meanwhile, college and university administrators have deployed a spate of court injunctions and other legal measures in an unsuccessful attempt to break the strike, and Quebec’s premier, Jean Charest, remains intransigent in spite of growing calls for his government to negotiate with student leaders.

So, why haven’t you heard about this yet?

While the Quebec student strike is comparable in scale to student movements in Europe and Latin America, it is entirely unique in the context of Canada and the continental United States, which makes the absence of media coverage outside the province puzzling at best and disturbing at worst.  As the veteran Canadian activist Judy Rebick observed in a recent rabble.ca column, “it is incredible that there has been almost no coverage of this extraordinary uprising of young people in Quebec in English Canada,” and, save for a brief mention on Democracy Now!, the movement has been ignored by even the independent American press.  A key factor, certainly, is language: Quebec is a predominantly French-speaking province with a fully separate media infrastructure, and its famously militant student unions, which are responsible for organizing the strike, operate largely independently of the academic and activist networks that link the rest of the continent.  In this sense, English and French North America exist as two solitudes in much the same way that English- and French-speaking Quebecers once did—that is, they live in close quarters but don’t actually talk to each other very much.

Still, language differences are no excuse for overlooking this important student movement.  Montreal, the province’s cultural capital, is a bilingual city and student leaders have made efforts to ensure that strike information is available on English Web sites, Facebook groups, and Twitter feeds.  Further, the English student media, based at Montreal’s Concordia and McGill universities, have provided consistent and often excellent coverage of the strike and related protests.  Even the national Canadian press has finally picked up the story, albeit without addressing the larger historical and political context of the strike or its connection to the austerity measures that are being imposed on students and workers across Canada and around the world.  More promisingly, next weekend’s Edufactory conference, The University is Ours!, is holding a special plenary session on tuition struggles in Quebec, which will help to raise awareness of the events that have fueled le printemps québécois.  At the very least, the student strike should serve as inspiration to social movements far beyond Quebec’s borders, as well as an urgent call to solidarity.

This headlines says it all!

Quebec Premier jokes with business leaders as police beat back protesters

Where is the UN?

Where is NATO? To 'save' these kids from their oppressors?

 

Anti-depressants "may do more harm then good" Understatement?!

Do the risks outweigh the so called benefit?
Seems quite likely

Benefits of most commonly prescribed anti-depressants, even taken at their best, compare poorly to the risks, which include premature death in elderly patients, a new study has revealed.

(This is not just about the elderly, it is about everyone prescribed the brain chemistry altering drugs)

The researchers examined previous patient studies into the effects of anti-depressants.

"We need to be much more cautious about the widespread use of these drugs," said Paul Andrews, an evolutionary biologist at McMaster University and lead author of the article. 

"It’s important because millions of people are prescribed anti-depressants each year, and the conventional wisdom about these drugs is that they’re safe and effective."

Anti-depressants are designed to relieve the symptoms of depression by increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain, where it regulates mood. 

The vast majority of serotonin that the body produces, though, is used for other purposes, including digestion, forming blood clots at wound sites, reproduction and development. 

What the researchers found is that anti-depressants have negative health effects on all processes normally regulated by serotonin. 

The findings include elevated risks, which include developmental problems in infants, problems with sexual stimulation and function and sperm development in adults, digestive problems such as diarrhoea, constipation, indigestion and bloating and abnormal bleeding and stroke in the elderly. 

The authors reviewed three recent studies showing that elderly anti-depressant users are more likely to die than non-users, even after taking other important variables into account.
The higher death rates indicate that the overall effect of these drugs on the body is more harmful than beneficial.

I should have just bolded this entire article!

"Serotonin is an ancient chemical. It’s intimately regulating many different processes, and when you interfere with these things you can expect, from an evolutionary perspective, that it’s going to cause some harm,"


Millions of people are prescribed anti-depressants every year, and while the conclusions may seem surprising, Andrews asserted much of the evidence has long been apparent and available.

"The thing that’s been missing in the debates about anti-depressants is an overall assessment of all these negative effects relative to their potential beneficial effects," he said.

"Most of this evidence has been out there for years and nobody has been looking at this basic issue."

Does this surprise anyone? 
That nobody looked at this most basic issue?
After all, antidepressants are a billion dollar industry!
 What would be the incentive?

The man made global warming agenda: Control. Currency. Profits

So, man made global warming...... You are bad.
You breathe air and emit carbon.
You carbon based life form!
Blah, blah, blah.
I used to be a believer.
But, like all things... once you really start to look into the whole scenario.
It doesn't quite add up.
Anthropogenic global warming is an agenda, bad humans destroying the planet made to pay, which the science has been created to fit.
Like the attack on Iraq. Where the intelligence was created, to fit the agenda.
Like big pharma research, where 'studies'....achieve the desired results to promote pharma intervention.
Nothing new under the sun. Societal manipulation for profits.
War profiteering. Pharmaceutical profiteering. And carbon profiteering.
Yes, that is what AGW is about. Profiteering. Not entirely, but, that is a big part of it.
There is also the control factor.
Global Warming or so we were told, was going to see the world get hotter, deserts expand,  ocean levels rise all due to glaciers melting.
As I type today, I am 'enjoying'  the fourth day of cold, wet snow, freezing rain at the end of April.
I have seen snow in early April, 26 years ago, that was freakish.  But never this late in April.
Now the global warming crowd is trying to convince everyone that global warming leads to cooling!!
Or that man made global warming leads to more erratic weather.
Erratic weather? As opposed to non- erratic weather?
Has weather ever been static? Has climate ever been static on this planet?
Static being defined as "Lacking in movement, action, or change, esp. in a way viewed as undesirable or uninteresting."
NO. The earths climate has always been anything but uninteresting.

 The earth has seen previous ice ages and previous warmings... The believers fail to take that fact into consideration.  They downplay the  role of  solar activity on the Earth or other planets in the solar system for that matter. The cult of man made Global Warming, and it is a cult, because it requires extraordinary levels of  faith or belief to sustain it, chose to believe  and accept many curious things...

Digression:  I have a number of posts on this subject, so one can hit the label at the bottom. I am not going to rehash it all here, again.

Some recent news was reported that demonstrated, yet again, yet another flaw in the cult of global warming.

Glaciers were growing - West Himalayan glaciers grew over last decade

From today-
You know the Polar Bears......yeah. Global warming, extinction.
Not so fast!

Just last year, the World Wildlife Fund’s climate blog headlined that “Polar Bear Population in Canada’s Western Hudson Bay Unlikely to Survive Climate Disruption.” But it seems that since then this subpopulation, previously believed to be among the most threatened subpopulations due to global warming, has made a miraculous recovery. According to aerial surveys released by the Government of Nunavat this month, their numbers are at least 66% higher than expected. This region, which straddles Nunavat and Manitoba, is critical because it’s considered to be a bellwether for how well polar bears are faring elsewhere in the Arctic.
And to top off that happy news, recent space satellite images reveal that 36 colonies of Antarctic emperor penguins are twice larger than researchers previously thought. In fact four additional colonies that scientists hadn’t known about were discovered as well.

66 percent higher!
Not likely a "miraculous recovery".

Rather, to my mind, a demonstration that numbers may have been manipulated. Fixed to fit the agenda.


Interestingly- James Lovelock,  who will surely lose high priest status from the global warming cult with this reversal

Seriously a reversal.

 Here’s what he says, as reported by MSNBC:

“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened,” Lovelock said.

“The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now,” he said.

“The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time… it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising -- carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that,” he added.

He pointed to Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers” as other examples of “alarmist” forecasts of the future.

"We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now” 

We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world. Sure, according to all the computer models/programs used to create the intelligence/results to fit the agenda of man made global warming.
 However, the real world doesn't operate according to a carefully programmed computer parameter.
Which is why we are not halfway to frying!

"Alarmist forecasts" with an agenda- Al Gore, himself, was set to become the first Carbon billionaire
What do we call that? When someone has a vested interest in a specific agenda.
The word escapes me at the moment. But, it doesn't matter, I am sure the concept of vested interest is one the vast majority of people are aware of.

Al Gore has a very large vested interest.
As pharmaceutical companies have vested interests in promoting the use of drugs
As the military industrial complex has vested interests in promoting war.

One thing the global warming cult always promotes as "green" is nuclear power.
Nuclear power is not green. Unless one is deluded!
Buffy, in the comment section of the previous glacier growth post, mentioned that the WAR MACHINE  has a huge "carbon footprint"
WAR is massively polluting. WAR is a massive resource waste. In so many ways.

I will share just a snippet-

The  DoD (department of defence) is the largest single consumer of energy in the United States. Nigeria, with a population of more than 140 million, consumes as much energy as the U.S. military.

The DoD consumes as much energy as an entire African nation.

The DoD uses 360,000 barrels of oil each day. This amount makes the DoD the single largest oil consumer in the world. 

The DoD is the single largest consumer of oil in the WORLD.
Of course there is electricity to consider..

There are other aspects of war that are destructive, besides the death and disease, depleted uranium etc.

Ever notice the global warming cult promoting peace?  Anti-war? No war?

Nope.

Aren't we witnessing an expansion of war?? Global war. 

How much energy will be consumed for imperialist agendas that are not supported by the populace??

 If governments of the world were legitimately concerned with "man made global warming" they would not be undertaking wars of choice for global hegemony.

Then there is the globalization agenda- I buy locally. As much as possible.

 But, local food supplies have been decimated to create a global food chain and planetary dependency-

We see, particularly in the US, a clamp down on home gardeners and organic grower, or local market gardens.... or food cooperatives Why?

Big polluters: one massive container ship equals 50 million cars

 April 23, 2009 The Guardian has reported on new research showing that in one year, a single large container ship can emit cancer and asthma-causing pollutants equivalent to that of 50 million cars. The low grade bunker fuel used by the worlds 90,000 cargo ships contains up to 2,000 times the amount of sulfur compared to diesel fuel used in automobiles. The recent boom in the global trade of manufactured goods has also resulted in a new breed of super sized container ship which consume fuel not by the gallons, but by tons per hour, and shipping now accounts for 90% of global trade by volume.

The fuel used in ships is waste oil, basically what is left over after the crude oil refining process. It is the same as asphalt and is so thick that when cold it can be walked upon . It's the cheapest and most polluting fuel available and the world's 90,000 ships chew through an astonishing 7.29 million barrels of it each day, or more than 84% of all exported oil production from Saudi Arabia, the worlds largest oil exporter. Shipping is by far the biggest transport polluter in the world. There are 760 million cars in the world today emitting approx 78,599 tons of Sulphur Oxides (SOx) annually. The world's 90,000 vessels burn approx 370 million tons of fuel per year emitting 20 million tons of Sulphur Oxides. That equates to 260 times more Sulphur Oxides being emitted by ships than the worlds entire car fleet.  

And where are the cultists on this issue? Nowhere to be seen. Or heard. Why?

Because cleaning up the environment is not really part of this agenda. It is profit a new form of currency in Carbon Credits. A new "bubble" to blow up and burst. And control of the populace. 

Of course there is the promotion of genetically modified food!

Story for another day.

Syria: UN Resolutions and the usual media lies!

Checking out the latest resolution from the UN...

It does appear that the Russian/Chinese version of drafts was adopted. Read entire piece at above link-

- Reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria, and to the purposes and principles of the Charter

The territorial integrity of Syria. That must have Hillary just spittin' blood
(one of my favourite pics of this evil woman)

-Condemning the widespread violations of human rights by the Syrian authorities, as well as any human rights abuses by armed groups, recalling that those responsible shall be held accountable, and expressing its profound regret at the death of many thousands of people in Syria,

-Noting the Syrian government’s commitment on 25 March 2012 to implement the six-point proposal of the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States, and to implement urgently and visibly its commitments, as it agreed to do in its communication to the Envoy of 1 April 2012, to (a) cease troop movements towards population centers, (b) cease all use of heavy weapons in such centers, and (c) begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centers, and to implement these in their entirety by no later than 10 April 2012, and noting also the Syrian opposition’s expressed commitment to respect the cessation of violence, provided the government does so;

-Expressing concern over ongoing violence and reports of casualties which have escalated again in recent days, following the Envoy’s assessment of 12 April 2012 that the parties appeared to be observing a cessation of fire and that the Syrian government had started to implement its commitments, and noting that the cessation of armed violence in all its forms is therefore clearly incomplete.

As the Syrian government began to implement it’s commitments, armed violence increased.
Clearly. Who does not want a cease-fire?

Continuing:

2. Calls upon the Syrian government to implement visibly its commitments in their entirety, as it agreed to do in the Preliminary Understanding and as stipulated in resolution 2042 (2012), to (a) cease troop movements towards population centers, (b) cease all use of heavy weapons in such centers, (c) complete pullback of military concentrations in and around population centers, as well as to withdraw its troops and heavy weapons from population centers to their barracks or temporary deployment places to facilitate a sustained cessation of violence;


3. Calls upon all parties in Syria, including the opposition, to immediately cease all armed violence in all its forms;


4. Calls upon the Syrian armed opposition groups and relevant elements to respect relevant provisions of the Preliminary Understanding;

Since we are repeatedly informed via the lying media that the armed elements are not under any centralized control we should expect the SNC to claim it is impossible to rein the terrorists in.
Obviously this is a lie.
There is ample centralized control in the terrorist supporting nation of Turkey, to stop the flow of guns and fighters. You and I know that Turkey ain’t gonna do that!


We are supposed to believe that this “new and assertive Russian policy” is because Putin is back!
Why does the lying media want people to believe this? The policy appears to be the same, a continuation of what has been ongoing for a year now. Why does the media present their news in this manner?

The Security Council yesterday unanimously backed sending 300 unarmed UN observers to Syria to monitor a cease-fire agreement between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebel groups fighting to oust him, even as violence continued. The resolution was crafted by Russia with support from China, nations that had objected to tougher U.S.-backed measures against the Assad regime.

“The Russians will be hoping fervently that this leads to some kind of peaceful resolution between Assad and the opposition in Syria,” said Tony Brenton, U.K. ambassador to Russia from 2004 to 2008. “If you think that not so long ago, after the collapse of communism, Russia became a completely negligible international factor, to be back out there at the table brokering international policy is a big thing for them.”

Russia’s shift from simply vetoing Security Council measures it opposes to drafting ones that serve its interests, coincides with Vladimir Putin’s return to power as president, with rising oil prices that are benefiting Russia’s economy, and with what Russian and other officials perceive to be America’s waning global hegemony.....

Is America’s global hegemony waning?

They also said friction between the U.S. and Pakistan has forced American and allied troops in Afghanistan to rely more on northern supply routes over which Russia has considerable influence. That, they said, has constrained the Obama administration’s ability to confront Russia on issues such as Iran, Syria, and North Korea while also seeking to withdraw U.S. forces and equipment from Afghanistan and soliciting foreign aid for the regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Was allowing the use of the base a means to gain influence?
Perhaps, Russia was playing chess?

While the Russia-backed Security Council Resolution 2043 lets unarmed monitors be deployed for an initial 90 days, it contains no sanctions or other penalties for Syria if it violates the cease-fire.

Vitaly Churkin made some interesting comments-

“Any deviation from the provisions is unacceptable,” Vitaly  Churkin, Russia’s envoy to the UN, said after yesterday’s Security Council vote. “Powerful forces” already are planning for the observers’ mission to fail, Churkin told reporters after the vote. “They already have other plans, which they entertain.”

Churkin’s remarks were an apparent reference to the possibility raised by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of getting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization involved in the Syrian conflict, one of the U.S. officials said.

.
As mentioned in my previous post- Hilary Clinton, war whore extraordinaire, made the prospect of NATO intervention to circumvent a UN mandate very clear. Not as if Hilary is subtle about her bloodlust.

“The Libyan model should always be something that remains in the past,” Churkin said

                                               
Lying media......
From the Montreal Gazette- Shame!

Lying Media : The violence came even as UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan singled out the government of President Bashar Assad in an appeal for an end to hostilities by both loyalist forces and rebels seeking to oust him.

Kofi Annan "I urge all forces whether governmental, opposition or others to put down their weapons and work with the United Nations monitors to consolidate the fragile cessation of violence," Annan said in a statement.

Kofi Annan did not single out the Syrian government.
Lying media!

Washington Post Lies

“Evidence is mounting that Islamist extremists are seeking to commandeer what began as a non-ideological uprising aimed at securing greater political freedom”
                                   

Evidence is mounting? Who is the Washington Post kidding?!
The Islamist extremists have been brought in to fight, to destroy, to kill, to maim. To cleanse.
And they have been brought in by NATO via their proxies in Turkey and Jordan.

The Washington Post fabricating reality for a gullible audience.
The fighters that came in from Turkey in the first major attac,k nearly a year ago, at Jisr al Shigour  were almost all Muslim Brotherhood and/ or Salafist fighters- Aided by NATO and Israel. And Western Special Ops, can’t forget that. France, US, UK.....

Thanks to NYS for pointing out that Tunisians have been fighting in Syria- coming in through Turkey

-Three Tunisian nationals were killed by the Syrian Army.

-The three young Tunisian nationals infiltrated into Syria with two others
- In February, five other Tunisians arrived in Syria through Turkey to join anti-government fighters. Four of the five men were reportedly arrested while the fifth managed to escape.

As mentioned there is plenty of centralized control in the Turkish terrorist supporting nation to stop the fighters.

Libyan solution increasingly considered for Syria- "protestors" ARMED

UPDATED BELOW

NATO looking for another bloodbath.......

Libya redux. The phrase sums up the shifting political sentiments — and rhetoric — toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as Western leaders edge closer to military intervention.At a meeting of the 14-member Friends of Syria group in Paris on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised the possibility of NATO involvement in Syria

In Paris, Clinton said Turkey may invoke the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s charter provision triggering consultations if a member’s security is threatened. Turkey, she said, has already discussed with NATO “the burden of Syrian refugees on Turkey, the outrageous shelling across the border from Syria into Turkey a week ago, and that Turkey is considering formally invoking Article 4” of the NATO charter.
Article 4, if invoked, would oblige Turkey’s NATO partners to consider action to stop the Syrian Army from shelling rebel positions along the border areas. Last week, after Syrian troops fired shells into Turkey, the Turkish government threatened to invoke Article 5, which refers to an attack on one NATO member as an attack on all.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who was in Paris for the meeting, said Canada will “push aggressively” to ensure Syria complies with the peace plan.

Perhaps so, but French President Nicolas Sarkozy compared the situation in Syria to that in Libya before the NATO campaign that resulted in the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi’s regime. “Bashar al-Assad is lying. He wants to wipe (the town of) Homs off the map just like Gadhafi wanted to destroy Benghazi.”
Last year, as they sought to justify the Libyan campaign, Sarkozy and other Western leaders regularly deployed rhetoric about humanitarian intervention, “the responsibility to protect” and the need to prevent more civilian deaths.

The calls for a Libya-like intervention in Syria are increasing, and, it seems, being given serious consideration. On Thursday, Syria’s rebel Free Syrian Army, sounding much like the rebels who challenged Gadhafi’s regime, said it was time for outside military intervention.

“The department of defence is reviewing and continuing to review plans for a variety of possible scenarios should the president determine that further steps are necessary,” Panetta said, noting that NATO’s operation in Libya last year would serve as a template. “We have looked at a variety of options, including the possibility of developing humanitarian corridors.”

Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also raised the spectre of another threat beyond the current violence — the security of Syria’s chemical and biological weapons. “Spillover into neighbouring countries is an increasing concern,” he said, citing the flow of refugees and the chance terrorists may try to capitalize on the chaos. The U.S. must be “especially alert to the fate of Syria’s chemical and biological weapons.”

“I think we’re in for 10 or 15 years of instability in a region that has already been characterized by instability,” the general said.

Actually Syria was stable. As had been Libya. As is Iran. As was Iraq.
Only western meddling has caused instability...as intended.

That certainly has held true for Libya since Gadhafi’s removal. Libya’s new leaders are having a difficult time gaining control of the country and asserting their authority against various still-fighting factions. As well, the terrorist threat is well established, with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb apparently gaining access to missiles and arms from abandoned Libyan Army stockpiles. Some observers predict a regional war across much of North Africa as the unintended consequence of the Libyan campaign.

Unintended? Bullshit! Completely intended. 

UPDATE!

I borrowed this from NYSC aka Ali. Thanks kindly Ali !
Why am I adding this?
 I have maintained all along, from the moment the western media spun the lie of  peaceful protests in Syria, the earliest protests were armed insurrections. I had covered the confiscation of weapons.
The main stream media stuck to it's lies

Duelling UN Resolutions.... China is sending observers

 One drafted by Russia and one allegedly by the EU, actually drafted by France.

Russia and  France (the European Union) circulated on Friday separate draft U.N. Security Council resolutions to authorize the deployment to Syria of up to 300 more ceasefire observers and there were hopes for a vote in the coming days, diplomats said.

There are seven monitors already in Syria after the council authorized an advance team of up to 30 on Saturday. A new resolution is needed for a further "initial deployment" of up to 300 as recommended by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Ban Ki-Moon. Go away. I for one am just sick of reading what you have to say.
Your a tool!
There, now I feel better!

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement published on the ministry's website on Friday: "Active work is taking place on the basis of the Russian text in order to take the decision tomorrow."

Council diplomats confirmed that negotiations are focusing on the Russian draft.

Both the Russian and France texts, authorize the deployment of 300 unarmed observers for an initial three month period and call upon Syria to implement its pledges under a six point plan by U.N.-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan.

A key difference is the text , which diplomats say was drafted by France, "underlines the need for the Syrian government to agree rapidly with the United Nations the independent use of air assets" by the observer mission.

                   

The Russia draft makes no mention of air assets and is a little less critical of Damascus than the EU text.

Syria has dismissed any need for U.N. aircraft.
I also read somewhere....can't find it. That the Syrian government was retaining the right to block some observers, understandably Syria wants neutral observers in place.

Some reports contain talk of the necessity of  ceasefire before expansion &  repercussions-

The French draft would authorize a force of 300 observers but condition its deployment to notification from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Syria has implemented its pledge to withdraw all troops and heavy weapons from cities and towns "to his satisfaction."

 Is Ban- Ki Moon trying to ingratiate himself into this situation? I thought this was the Anan Plan?

France (EU) proposed resolution : “Stresses that it is critically important to create "a sustained cessation of violence" and establish "a conducive environment" for the large mission to deploy.”

Russian resolution: “Would immediately establish the 300-strong force without any conditions, though it does underline the importance that international envoy Kofi Annan's attaches to Syria's withdrawal of troops and weapons.”

Another difference in the texts is whether Syria should face possible sanctions if it fails to send its troops and heavy weapons back to barracks.

The French (EU)  draft “expresses the council's intention, in the event of Syrian non-compliance, to adopt non-military sanctions under Article 41 of the U.N. Charter which would likely include economic measures such as asset freezes, and travel bans.

 The Russian draft makes no mention of such measures.
                               
The French (EU) draft: Would authorize the expanded U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, to be known as UNSMIS, to not only monitor a cease-fire and withdrawal of Syrian troops and heavy weapons but also "monitor and support" full implementation of Annan's six-point peace plan.

Noting the French draft is holding Syria culpable only.

The Russian draft: Says the expanded force will monitor a cease-fire "and relevant aspects of the envoy's six-point proposal."

Russia held a meeting of experts from the 15 council nations at its mission Friday morning to discuss its text.

           
China To Join UN's Syria Observers Mission

China will send personnel to join the United Nations' (UN) observers mission and its advance team in Syria, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, speaking at a press conference, said that China is discussing the details with the UN Secretariat and supports any efforts to help realize a sustained cessation of violence and initiate political dialogue among parties in Syria.

Turkey: The odd man in 

Interesting read


 

Gilad Atzmon- The Wandering Who?

I am putting up a two part interview done with Gilad Atzmon: 

On the topic of Zionism and Jewish Identity Politics and his book, The Wandering Who?

First, my thanks to Jan Irvin @ Gnostic Media who did both of these interviews and made them available to the public at large. Thanks Jan!

I listened twice to each interview. Interesting, informative, enlightening, thought provoking
Bringing to my mind the concept of "pre-traumatic stress syndrome".....

Part 1

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:26:35 — 49.6MB)

 Pt 2


Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:38:07 — 56.2MB)

Syria: The fulcrum on which world peace pivots

After a brief break were back to Syria-
Figuratively speaking.
Syria's Foreign Minister is in China .This follows a visit to Russia last week.

Syria's foreign minister will arrive in Beijing on Monday to brief Chinese officials about a United Nations-brokered ceasefire for the conflict-torn country.
The report from Damascus, which quoted a Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, said Walid Muallem would visit China for two days.

The first UN observers arrived in Syria on Sunday to monitor a ceasefire between government troops and rebels, part of the Annan plan.

Speaking of UN observers? Russia claims ceasefire is fragile

 "There really are those who are interested in the failure of Kofi Annan's plan and they actually mentioned that (opinion) even before this plan was made public" Mr Lavrov

"There are countries – there are outside forces – that are not interested in the success of current UN Security Council efforts"

In amongst some of the changes at the UN covered in this post, I hadn't seen this mentioned

Moscow backed the resolution after successfully insisting on including one Russian officer in the observers group.

One Russian observer in the initial team with more to come?

Sergei Ryabkov, deputy foreign minister, said Russia would be "substantially" represented in the mission.
"The specifics of our participation in the observers mission are being worked on right now," Interfax quoted Mr Ryabkov as saying.

"Without a well-functioning observers mission working in the field, it is impossible to obtain a reliable and objective picture of what is happening."

Don't get excited about the  meeting, mentioned below. This has been one of many meetings Russia has had with internal Syrian opposition.

Russia on Monday also hosted members of the National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change – a splinter opposition group that was not invited to the latest Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul.

Interesting op-ed : Iran and Syria: Small Glimmer of Hope in a Bleak Scenario
Read in full at above link

As of now, the slide down in West Asia towards war – both on Iran and in Syria – seems to have come to a fragile halt. The negotiations in Istanbul on Iran's nuclear enrichment have not ended in mutual recriminations as was expected but in a promise to meet again in Baghdad in 6 weeks time. In Syria, the brittle peace engineered by Kofi Annan is mostly holding, albeit with some breaches.

Iran and Nuclear Weapons 

The Iran issue should have been a simple one. Legally, Iran has a right to uranium enrichment up to 20% – as long as the fissile material is under IAEA safeguards. This is what NPT guarantees. Iran has no obligation to give up uranium enrichment or technologies that can help in making a bomb. Such technologies are dual use technologies and giving up these technologies is equivalent to Iran giving up whole sectors of the economy. A course that is not asked of say, Germany and Japan. Probably about 40 countries in the world have the capability that Iran is being asked to give up.

IAEA under the current Director General Amano concedes that Iran's fissile material inventory is fully accounted for – Iran has not diverted any of it for weapons purpose.
The issue for Israel and also the US has never been the actual violation of NPT by Iran. There is near unanimity that Iran has not renewed its weapons program after 2003. Developing weapons capability is allowed to it under NPT, as also building fuel enrichment facilities. Therefore, when Israel and echoing Israel, the US asks for dismantling its nuclear enrichment facilities and not building weapons capability, they are asking Iran to capitulate and give up what is permitted under NPT.

Israel has argued that a weapons capable Iran is an existential threat to it. The US has also been talking about various red-lines for Iran, some times actual nuclear weapons development, some times nuclear weapons capability. For both, the argument has been Iran should give up fuel enrichment. Therefore, if Ashton's statement is taken as the basis, this is a significant change. Not surprisingly, Netanyahu has criticised the talks in Istanbul, claiming that Iran is being given a “freebie”. Israel wants ratcheting up of the sanctions and driving the US into a war with Iran. This was proceeding quite nicely with brutal sanctions including cutting off Iran from the global banking network, with threats of more to come. What may have given the US pause is the realisation that turning Iran's oil spigot off will do far more damage than the current increase of 25 cents per gallon. With Russia, China and even India now not willing to hurt their own economy to please the US, the sanction route was hitting a huge road block.

Syria – part of the Iran-Israel-US Mix

For Israel and the US, Iran's influence is now spreading – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and even Palestine is under its influence. Therefore knocking out Syria – either regime change or a civil war – serves the larger interests of Israel and the US in the region.

Syria has also drawn the other West Asian powers into its fray. The Saudis, the Gulf Emirates and Qatar are all aligning with rising Muslim Brotherhood as is Turkey. For them, either secular nationalism or radical Islamic nationalism of the Iranian kind are threats to their relationship with the US and the NATO. They are all a part of the neo-liberal consensus, as are the Muslim Brothers. While they differ on Israel with the US and NATO, on the issue of Iran and its radical influence, they are all united.

 

 

West Himalayan glaciers grew over last decade

 The glaciers flowing between the towering peaks of the Karakoram range on the Pakistan-China border have grown in size in the last decade, according to new research.
The impact of climate change on the ice in the greater Himalaya range has been controversial because of an unfounded claim by the United Nations' climate science panel over the rate of melting in the region The new study shows that glaciers in one important part of the mountain range are growing. "We provide a detailed glacier-scale evaluation of mass changes in the central Karakoram," said Julie Gardelle, at CNRS-Université Grenoble, who led the research published in Nature Geoscience on Sunday. "In our warming world, there are regions of the Earth where, for a few years or decades, the atmosphere is not warming or is even cooling.

This sentence is prime double speak- "In our warming world, there are regions of the earth that are not warming or are even cooling"

Therefore our  "WORLD" CANNOT be warming if some parts of it are staying the same and others are cooling.

The earth is always in a state of change. As a living organism it is evolving.
Always has been. Always will be.
From long before you and I were here, till long after we are gone.......

The scientists used 3D altitude maps obtained from satellites in 2000 and 2008 to track the changes in the glaciers. Prof Graham Cogley, of Trent University in Canada, who was not part of the research team, called the approach a "ground-breaking" advance. 

BBC:
Who do there darndest to explain this away, minimize or downplay it...

 A French team used satellite data to show that glaciers in part of the Karakoram range, to the west of the Himalayan region, are putting on mass.

The response of Himalayan glaciers to global warming has been a hot topic ever since the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which contained the erroneous claim that ice from most of the region could disappear by 2035.

Amongst so many other "erroneous claims"

The French scientists, from the National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Grenoble, compared two models of land surface elevation derived from satellite observations, for 1999 and 2008, and report their findings in the Nature Geoscience journal.

Brutal repression of protestors surely requiring international intervention!

Ooops, it's the IDF attacking protestors against the occupation of Palestinian land.
Never mind!

Remember Rachel Corrie

This one will go away too, because, it is all "anti-semetism"!!!!!
And your "anti-semetic" if you say anything about IDF behaviour or Israeli policies
However, you can condemn the true Semites until you are blue in the face....

black = white
up = down
war = peace
killing = saving
bombing = helping

Cause that is the crazy kinda world we live in!

From Soup to Nuts- Colvin, gun runners, Afghanistan & more

Everything but the Kitchen sink!
Which tells you I have way too much stuff bookmarked- Aargh!
Some of it is a bit older but no less interesting.
Revisiting Marie Colvin; another blogger, fitzhenrymac,
who has a blog of the same name left this interesting factoid in an older post

Marie Colvin – day she died obits

 Nice printed placards all ready to go, video made and uploaded to You Tube by waseemov1
Who printed the cards? When was the video shot?  Where was this video shot?  
It was uploaded to you tube the day Marie Colvin died. Fast work for maximum impact?

Fitzhenry has some other interesting items at his blog.
 
US Transfers Control of Night Raids to Afghanistan Authorities
Kind of, sort of as you will read-

Night Raids. The media spun the most recent killing spree in Afghanistan as an anomaly. The work of the "lone gunman" who had gone rogue. Or some such nonsense.
The fact of the matter, the night raids are routine acts of terror committed against the Afghan people by the occupying forces.

That's right American terrorism, brought to you by American taxpayer dollars. Or drug running, whichever?

From the article-

Accelerating the transition of military responsibility to the Afghan government, the United States agreed Sunday to hand control of special operations missions to Afghan forces, including night raids

Resolving? " one of the most contentious issues for President Hamid Karzai who faced intense domestic political pressure because of night raids’ deep unpopularity here, even as American commanders had insisted they were the linchpin of the military mission in Afghanistan."

The memorandum of understanding signed on Sunday gives Afghan forces the lead role in night raid operations against suspected insurgents, and also requires an Afghan court warrant within 72 hours of a raid. A warrant can be issued after a raid only in cases where the intelligence needed to be acted on immediately, otherwise it must be executed in advance, according to Afghan officials. 

I am quite sure that all intelligence will need to be acted on immediately

Under the terms of the agreement, Afghan forces can still call on American troops for help and authorize them to enter Afghan residences and private compounds. The agreement covers all night raids carried out by special operations forces. However, a small number of night operations are conducted under other auspices, including special C.I.A.-trained units, that are not covered by the agreement, military and civilian officials said. 

While the deal underscores the continuing diminution of American power here, the fact is that the United States and other allied countries still pay nearly all of the costs of Afghan security forces. That means the West will retain considerable leverage for some time to come, officials here said.

“The Americans are not giving up a huge amount,” one Western official said. “And if they are paying $4.1 billion a year for the Afghan military, if they want permission to question someone, I think they’ll get it,” the official added

What is that saying? The more things change, the more they are the same?

Another one-  NATO sees Flaws in Air Campaign in Libya- Ramifications for a Syrian Campaign?

Despite widespread praise in Western capitals for NATO’s leadership of the air campaign in Libya, a confidential NATO assessment paints a sobering portrait of the alliance’s ability to carry out such campaigns without significant support from the United States. 

"The findings undercut the idea that the intervention was a model operation and that NATO could effectively carry out a more complicated campaign in Syria without relying disproportionately on the United States military. Even with the American help in Libya, NATO had only about 40 percent of the aircraft needed to intercept electronic communications, a shortage that hindered the operation’s effectiveness, the report said.
 Mounting an operation in Syria would pose a bigger challenge than the seven-month campaign" in Libya.

 Syria has a more capable military as well as a formidable array of sophisticated Russian-made air defenses that Pentagon officials say would take weeks of airstrikes to destroy.

Also, the Syrian opposition is more disjointed and dispersed than Libya’s, making allied efforts to coordinate with the rebels more difficult

“If anything were to be envisaged over Syria, even in purely hypothetical terms, it would also rely heavily on U.S. capabilities”

The report also spotlights an important issue for the alliance that dates to the Balkan wars of the 1990s: that the United States has emerged “by default” as the NATO specialist in providing precision-guided munitions — which made up virtually all of the 7,700 bombs and missiles dropped or fired on Libya — and a vast majority of specialized aircraft that conduct aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, or I.S.R. in military parlance. 

“NATO remains overly reliant on a single ally to provide I.S.R. collection capabilities that are essential to the commander,” the report said. 

I don't think the fact that the US is NATO should come as a surprise to anyone, really? 

Hence the involvement of Israel.....

President Obama has requested that the Pentagon begin preparing preliminary military options in Syria — a routine step for military contingency planning during crises overseas — but the administration still believes that using diplomatic and economic pressure is the best way to stop the violent repression by the Syrian government.  

Violent repression?! President Obomba check the US behaviour in Afghanistan for violent repression! 

The report was silent on the controversies that have followed the campaign. These included questions surrounding at least scores of civilian deaths caused by NATO action, which have been documented by independent researchers and the United Nations alike, and accusations by survivors and human rights organizations that alliance naval vessels did not assist boats in distress carrying migrants who later perished at sea.

Of course.

Speaking of arms dealers- Not the Russian one that is making the news lately- 

The one that worked with American Intelligence - Sarkis G. Soghanalian 

He died late last year. 

His death was covered in the NYT's

He had to have been a real VIP. An American arms dealer!

In 1981, he pleaded guilty to fraud in the sale of .50-caliber machine guns to Mauritania. But a judge granted him probation, saying the case “involved international affairs conducted by the State Department.”

In 1993, he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for smuggling 103 helicopters to Iraq in violation of United Nations sanctions. But he managed to have his sentence reduced to two years after informing American officials of a place in Lebanon where high-quality counterfeit $100 bills were being printed.

Mr. Soghanalian was charged with wire fraud a few years later. But he was released after being held for 10 months

He worked with the CIA, the FBI

After he settled in Florida in the 1990s, United States Customs officials would occasionally raid his hangar at Miami International Airport, looking for contraband, Mr. Bergman said.

“And then the case would go away,” he said, as Mr. Soghanalian called on friends in the government to come to his defense.

“There’s been enough said about ‘merchant of death’ and all that,” his son said. “But all the way back to the ’60s and ’70s, his goal was to help the United States. There was a deep-seated root of patriotism that often gets overlooked.”

Patriotism? Sure.....

“He’s one of those characters who emerged out of the cold war and played a critical role in clandestine activities on behalf of the United States, while providing deniability ”

"UN concessions show Russia's clout" Perhaps?

Globe and Mail

Perhaps it was Russia's 'clout' ? However, I have my doubts. The inordinate amount of attention given to Russia's role in obstructing the imperialist agenda of the West is, in my opinion, part of an agenda to demonize Russia via the msm.

China has had the same view on the Syrian Crisis.

 China and Russia – both permanent members on the Council -- joined the other 13 Council members and voted in favour of Resolution 2042. The two nations vetoed twice -- in October and in February – resolutions on Syria, stating they supported to solve the Syria crisis through international dialogue instead of "regime change".

Why the focus on Russia?
I have been guilty of the Russia centric focus here on the blog,  because I derive most of the info used  from the msm. This creates a perceptual  imbalance which should be kept in check, even by me!
Therefore I am mentioning that  China and Russia both wielded Veto's previously. China and Russia both approved the Anan Peace Plan.
Is this a rehash of the 'cold war' style propaganda?
Curious?

From G & M

A small contingent of six United Nations observers are due to arrive Sunday evening in Damascus and be on the street Monday, paving the way for as many as 30 observers this week to verify if both sides in Syria’s civil conflict are abiding by a ceasefire that went into effect Thursday.

The deployment of observers had been held back after a disagreement emerged Friday between the United States, Britain and France on the one hand and Russia on the other.
While all parties agreed on the need to speedily deploy observers in the hope of prodding both sides in Syria to observe the ceasefire and to move quickly to a political process, Russia balked at some of the language the United States had added to a draft resolution on deploying the observers.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s United Nations ambassador, said Moscow objected to the one-sided nature of the U.S. resolution that blamed only the Syrian government for the conflict and threatened punishment for its crimes. Russia also objected to the fact that the resolution included the deployment of a full contingent of some 250-300 observers, and that Syria was required to give the force complete freedom of action inside Syria.
Moscow wanted the resolution to pin responsibility for the conflict on both the regime and armed elements of the opposition, and it wanted the resolution to apply only to the advance team of some 30 UN observers. The balance of the observers and the terms of their deployment should be subject to Syrian agreement, (Russian and Chinese observers, perhaps?) Mr. Churkin says.

And Russia (and China, perhaps India? ) got exactly what it wanted.

The resolution adopted unanimously Saturday morning by the 15-member UN Security Council, applies only to the advance group of observers, blames both sides for the country’s violence, and pledges that the terms of any further observer forces’ deployment would be agreed on only after consultations between Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Syrian government.

The concessions show just how much the United States and its allies have come to accept that Russia is crucial to finding a political solution to the bloody mess in Syria.

The Security Council resolution calls on both sides to “cease all armed violence in all its forms” and condemns “the widespread violations of human rights by the Syrian authorities, as well as any human rights abuses by armed groups.”

This is more balanced, said Mr. Churkin, who explained Moscow was acting “out of respect for the sovereignty of Syria.”
“Out of respect for the sovereignty of Syria we have cautioned against destructive attempts at external interference or imposing any kind of illusory fixes,” he said.