Evidence Grows in Deir el-Zour: US Backs ISIS, Russia Makes Accusation

American Bombing No Mistake
By Karl Pomeroy

Quemado Institute
September 19, 2016

Evidence continues to accumulate that the United States is supporting terrorism overseas. The American air strikes in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour on Saturday, September 17, 2016, which killed some 80 Syrian troops and allowed ISIS to expand in the area, constitute de facto proof of deliberate Pentagon military aid to terrorists and in particular ISIS.

The US government claims the bombing was a mistake. This is impossible to believe. The air strikes violated the new US-Russian ceasefire (see full text here), constituting a crime on that basis alone. But that’s not the most important clue. No sane person could conceivably accept the claim that the Pentagon is so ignorant it did not know what it was doing.

Place the Criminals in Isolation

It is time Obama be impeached, and his terrorist cohorts infiltrating the American government be put on public trial. The people of this country, along with officials and observers all over the world, must demand action to end US war-mongering.

All foreign nations should boycott every event attended by US officials who back regime change or ISIS, and should conduct summits in the absence of complicit US “diplomats”. Cuba and China have tiptoed down this rocky path, cheekily snubbing Obama’s grand entrance to their airports.

Sanctions against the United States might also be in order. Samantha Power should be roundly condemned at the UN by every member present. She should not be allowed to finish a sentence, much less give a speech, and should be treated firmly and rudely. Her lies are a disgrace to the ears of intelligent people.

Enforced isolation imposed on the US would not start World War III. It would simply send a message so strong, American policy would have to change. Obama seems intent to do as much damage as possible in the last 100 deadly days of his term. He must be stopped by any legal nonviolent means at the world’s disposal.

What Has Happened to Vladimir Putin?

Moscow claims to have finally reached the obvious conclusion that the US supports ISIS. They’re lying. The Kremlin has known for several years that the US is aiding terrorists. Why has Putin been too timid  to simply  come out and say so? Why wait until now? The Russian President’s defeatist behavior is perplexing.

Or is it?

Something happened to Putin after he adopted the Crimean peninsula. Something changed him radically at the time of the Sochi Olympics, where pride flamed from his blazing face over the achievements of his great nation, a pride prescient of his ultimate humiliation and retreat into slimebag diplomacy. Never again has he made a great move.

Something happened to the Russian President when he found new romance at the Sochi Olympics and betrayed, then eventually divorced, his long-devoted wife Lyudmila. The global superhero wilted psychologically—went from firebrand to basket case in the space of a few weeks.

Putin then betrayed Donbass, first by discouraging the May 11, 2014 referendum; second by non-recognition of the newly formed Republics; third by failure to defend Donbass militarily; fourth by overturning the Duma’s decision allowing armed intervention; fifth by failing to defend Donetsk and Lugansk diplomatically; and sixth by embracing the illegal Ukraine government—even calling the Kiev war criminals “partners”. He pansy-assed to the West, and never regained his global leadership. It was the fall of a great man—one of the most admirable leaders in history.

The following four articles support many, though not all, of my contentions.

In the first, Daniel McAdams elucidates supsicious facts on the ground in Deir el-Zour. Following that, Paul Craig Roberts exposes Moscow’s vacillating weakness in a biting analysis of Russia’s failure to confront Washington over Syria. In the next, antiwar.com’s Jason Ditz illustrates the curious benefits of the bombings to the American neconservative contingent.

Finally, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin, in a report from rt.com,  gives further damning evidence against US government motives, a stance that highlights the recent turnabout in Russia’s diplomatic posture.

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US Bombs Assads Troops, Kills 62, Enables Big ISIS Advance,
Infuriates New Russian Allies
By Danial McAdams

David Stockman’s Contra Corner
Original: LewRockwell.com
September 19, 2016

The US military has bombed Syrian government positions in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour today, where the Syrian military had been battling ISIS. According to the report, the US attack on Syrian troops “enabled an [ISIS] advance on the hill overlooking the air base.” This is the second time US forces have directly targeted Syrian government troops inside Syria. It would be the first time such an attack produced a battlefield advantage to ISIS.

The US attack has killed at least 62 and perhaps as many as 100 Syrian government troops.

Earlier today it was reported that the Syrian government had sent some 1,000 members of the elite Republican Guard into the Deir el-Zour province, as battles with ISIS in the area increase. This US attack has wiped out perhaps ten percent of this force and has obliterated Syrian army weapons and other materiel.

The US government has admitted to the attack, but claims it was all a mistake. As some observers have pointed out, however, ISIS does not behave as traditional military units. They do not generally gather in large numbers like this or establish “bases.” The US Central Command released a statement earlier today claiming that the US coordinated the strike with the Russians, but Moscow has vehemently denied the claim. In fact, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova was quoted by the state news agency Tass as saying that “after today’s attack on the Syrian army, we come to the terrible conclusion that the White House is defending the Islamic State.”

This dramatic development comes as the latest ceasefire begins to crumble. Russia has condemned Washington’s refusal to implement a key component of the agreement, to press US-backed rebels to cease fighting alongside al-Qaeda; and the main US-backed “moderate” Islamist group, Ahrar al-Sham, has refused to take part in the ceasefire at all. Yesterday, US-backed FSA “moderate” opposition troops chased US Special Forces out of one town in Syria.

Is today’s attack a turning point in the war, where the US will begin to strike Syrian government forces more frequently? If so, how will Russia and Iran react to this overt shift in US strategy? Is this the flashpoint?

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Russia Has No Partners In The West
By Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts
September 19, 2016

The Russian government is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The Russian government keeps making agreements with Washington, and Washington keeps breaking them.

This latest exercise in what Einstein defined as insanity is the latest Syrian cease fire agreement. Washington broke the agreement by sending the US Air Force to bomb Syrian troop positions, killing 62 Syrian soldiers and wounding 100, thus clearing the way for ISIS to renew the attack.

Russia caught Washington off guard in September 2015 when the Russian Air Force was sent to bomb ISIS positions in Syria, thus enabling the Syrian Army to regain the initiative. Russia had the war against ISIS won, but pulled out unexpectedly before the job was done. This allowed the US or its agents to resupply ISIS, which renewed the attack.

So Russia had to return to Syria. In the interval Washington had inserted itself. Now the Russian air attacks on ISIS are more complicated, as is the sky over Syria. Russia notifies Washington of its planned attacks on ISIS, and Washington warns ISIS and perhaps Turkey which shot down a Russian plane. Nevertheless, the Syrian Army gained ground.

But each time victory was stymied by “peace talks” or a “cease fire,” during which the US supported forces would regroup. Consequently, a war that Russia and Syria could have already won continues, and with a new element. Now Washington has directly attacked the Syrian army.

The US military claims it thought it was striking ISIS. Think about that a minute. The US claims to be a military superpower. It spies on the entire world, even on the personal emails and cell phone calls of its European vassals. Yet, somehow all this spy power failed to differentiate a known Syrian Army position from ISIS. If we believe that, we must conclude that the US is militarily incompetent.

This is what has happened: Prior to the current “cease fire,” the Russians could attack the US-supported jihadists, but the US could not attack Syrian forces directly, only through its jihadist proxies. The US has used the “cease fire” to create a precedent for US direct attacks on the Syrian Army.

The Russians, who almost had the war won, have shifted their focus to “peace talks” and “cease fires” that the US has used to introduce Washington’s direct participation into the conflict.

It is a mystery that the Russian government believes Washington and Moscow have any common interest in the outcome in Syria. Washington’s interest is to remove Assad and put Syria into the chaos that rules in Libya and Iraq. Russia’s interest is to stabalize Syria as a bulwark against the spread of jihadism. It is extraordinary that the Russian government is so misinformed that it thinks Moscow and Washington have a common interest in fighting terrorism, when terrorism is Washington’s weapon for destabilizing the Middle East.

How can the Russian memory be so short? Washington promised Gorbachev that if he permitted the reunification of Germany, NATO would not move one inch to the East. But the Clinton regime placed NATO on Russia’s border.

The George W. Bush regime violated the ABM Treaty by pulling out of it, and the Obama regime is putting missile bases on Russia’s border.

The neoconservatives deep-sixed no first use of nuclear weapons and elevated them to pre-emptive first strike in US war doctrine.

The Obama regime overthrew the Ukrainian government and installed a US puppet government in a former constituent part of Russia. The puppet government launched a war against the Russian populations in Ukraine, causing secession movements that Washington has mischaracterized as “Russian invasion and annexation.”

Yet, the Russian government thinks Washington is a “partner” with whom it has common interests.

Go figure.

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ISIS Overruns Syrian Army Base After US Bombings
US warplanes Killed 83 Syrian Troops Ahead of ISIS Incursion
By Jason Ditz

AntiWar.com
September 18, 2016

In the defense of the Deir Ezzor Airport, the Syrian military has long depended on an army base in Jebel Tharda to repel ISIS advances. That base has been lost this weekend, after a disastrous series of US-led airstrikes killed a large number of Syrian troops defending the base, and ISIS quickly overran what was left.

For over 20 minutes, the coalition warplanes attacked the base. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the attack killed at least 83 Syrian troops and wounded 120 others. The US Central Command claimed they thought the base belonged to ISIS.

It does now. With the forces decimated by the US attack, ISIS quickly overran the base. Syrian state media claimed an ongoing effort to recover the site, but it does not appear to have been successful yet, as ISIS managed to shoot down a Syrian warplane, flying out of Deir Ezzor Airport, over Jebel Tharda.

The US continued attacking the Syrian troops until they were warned by Russia that they were attacking the wrong site. The US has since expressed “regret” but also condemned Russia for calling an emergency UN Security Council meeting over the matter, insisting everyone knows the US “would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit.”

Protracted anti-Russia speeches by the US Ambassador ended the emergency meeting prematurely, and has led Russian officials to remark that the incident is “suspicious” and reflective of the US refusal to coordinate in the air war against ISIS.

The US and Russia had brokered a ceasefire which went into effect last week, and included the Syrian government, meaning the airstrikes were a major violation of that ceasefire. Though the ceasefire was supposed to, after seven days, give way to a new coordinated US-Russia bombing campaign, it is unclear at this point if Russia has any appetite to attempt this anymore, as US officials continue to complain that they don’t trust Russia to keep up their end of the bargain.

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Timing and Other Aspects of US Strike on Syrian Army
Suggest Intentional Provocation – Churkin

Rt.com
September 18, 2016

The US’ sudden attempt to “help” the Syrian army fighting ISIS in the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, which resulted in a strike that killed and injured dozens of soldiers, does not look like an honest mistake, Russia’s UN envoy told journalists at the UNSC meeting.

“It is highly suspicious that the United States chose to conduct this particular air strike at this time,” Russia’s ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.

Churkin questioned why the US suddenly chose to “help” the Syrian army defend Deir ez-Zor after all these years, recalling how American forces just observed terrorists’ movements and did “nothing when ISIS advanced on Palmyra.”

“It was quite significant and not accidental that it happened just two days before the Russian-American arrangements were supposed to come into full force,” Churkin added.

Churkin also questioned why the US decided to classify and not share with the public or even members of the Security Council the text of the US-Russia deal reached in Geneva, before reading out two passages from the document.

The preamble of the document signed by both nations on September 9 read that the US and Russia are prepared to undertake “joint efforts” to stabilize the situation in Syria with special emphasis on the Aleppo region,and would separate moderate opposition forces from those of Al-Nusra. The second passage, presented by Churkin, read that the purpose of the Joint Implementation Group (JIG) is to “enable expanded coordination” between the US and Russia to work together to defeat Jabhat Al-Nusra and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and support the political transition process.

“The beginning of work of the Joint Implementation Group was supposed to be September 19. So if the US wanted to conduct an effective strike on Al-Nusra or ISIS, in Deir ez-Zor or anywhere else, they could wait two more days and coordinate with our military and be sure that they are striking the right people.”

“Instead they chose to conduct this reckless operation,” Churkin said.

He also noted that the US has been voicing its concern over the humanitarian situation in Syria, claiming that because of it, “there are no conditions to start implementing the arrangements of the Joint Implementation Group.” But the Syrian government cleared all obstacles for the humanitarian aid it be delivered, leaving the US with “no serious ground” to halt or postpone the start date of the JIG’s work.

“So it may well be, one has to conclude, that the airstrike has been conducted in order to derail the operation of the Joint Implementation Group and actually prevent it from being set in motion,” Churkin said. “It may well be that the United States is trying to hide the fact that they are actually not in control of the situation, that they allowed the situation to get out of control.”

Vitaly Churkin spoke to journalists after briefly leaving the closed-door UN Security Council meeting, which was convened by Moscow to give Washington a chance to offer an explanation for the actions of its military.

However, instead of discussing the issue, US ambassador Samantha Power immediately left the room to address the press and accuse Russia of hypocrisy.

The US envoy to the UN spent some 30 seconds expressing “regret” over the unfortunate coalition airstrike that resulted in the loss of the lives of Syrian soldiers, and insisting that even if the ongoing investigation proves the US military is indeed to blame, it had never been their “intention” to strike Syrian military.

After that, Power spent the next 15 minutes slamming Moscow’s “uniquely hypocritical and cynical” attempt to make Washington explain itself at an urgent UNSC meeting.

“Why are we having this meeting tonight? It is a diversion from what is happening on the ground. If you don’t like what is happening on the ground then you distract. It is a magician’s trick… we encourage the Russian Federation to have emergency meetings with the Assad regime and deliver them to this deal,” said Samantha Power.

“What Russia is alleging tonight is that somehow the United States is undermining the fighting against ISIL. The Russian spokesperson even said that the United States might be complicit in this attack … this is not a game,” she added, before going into details of how Assad government is to blame for the dire situation in Syria.