[sanjuro]

Syria hits out at 'terrorist' US

Syria's foreign minister has accused the US of an act of "criminal and terrorist aggression" over what it says was a helicopter raid on its territory.

Walid Muallem said Sunday's attack saw four US aircraft travel eight miles inside Syrian airspace from Iraq and kill eight unarmed civilians on a farm.

Unnamed US military officials have said the attack targeted and killed a high profile al-Qaeda operative.

But the White House has not confirmed or denied the alleged raid.

A US official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that its forces had mounted a "successful" raid against foreign fighters threatening US forces in Iraq.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Syria hits out at 'terrorist' US

Syria's foreign minister has accused the US of an act of "criminal and terrorist aggression" over what it says was a helicopter raid on its territory.

Walid Muallem said Sunday's attack saw four US aircraft travel eight miles inside Syrian airspace from Iraq and kill eight unarmed civilians on a farm.

Unnamed US military officials have said the attack targeted and killed a high profile al-Qaeda operative.

But the White House has not confirmed or denied the alleged raid.

A US official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that its forces had mounted a "successful" raid against foreign fighters threatening US forces in Iraq.

Pakistan, Syria, Iran, tomato, tomaahtoe, tomaytoh.

 

[jimmydean]

As I said in 2004, the US has never changed parties in a time of war. If the GOP can start something good in the next 7 days, the Dems are done. But they also don't have the troop numbers. Good thing we have all these idle nukes and stuff.

 

[MMike]

Hey wasn't Isreal supposed to attack someone right about now?

 

[$tinkle]

more details: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/10/syrian_strike_aimed.php

The US military incursion into Syria was aimed at the senior leader of al Qaeda's extensive network that funnels foreign fighters, weapons, and cash from Syria into Iraq, a senior intelligence official told The Long War Journal.

US special operations hunter-killer teams entered Syria in an attempt to capture Abu Ghadiya, a senior al Qaeda leader who has been in charge of the Syrian network since 2005. US intelligence analysts identified Ghadiya as the leader of the Syrian network, The Washington Post reported in July. Ghadiya was identified as a “major target” by the US military in February 2008.

The raid to capture Ghadiya occurred in the town of Sukkariya near Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, just five miles from the Iraqi border. Four US helicopters crossed the border and two of the helicopters landed to drop off special operations forces, who then proceeded to clear structures.

Nine people were reported killed and 14 were wounded. Syrian officials claimed innocent construction workers and women and children were killed in the raid.

US officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not comment if Ghadiya was killed or captured during the raid.

The US military has officially refused to confirm or deny the raid took place. But several senior intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject told The Long War Journal that the raid was indeed carried out inside Syria.

The raid is the first of its kind against Syria. The US has been striking regularly at Taliban and al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan’s tribal areas since the beginning of September.

Ghadiya, whose real name is Badran Turki Hishan al Mazidih, is an Iraqi from the northern city of Mosul. Ghadiya succeeded Suleiman Khalid Darwish, a Syrian national and lieutenant of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the former leader of al Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by US forces in June 2006. US forces killed Darwish in a raid in Al Qaim in June 2005.

Serving Syria notice

The cross-border raid took place just three days after Major General John Kelly, the commander of Multinational Force - West, said Syria is "problematic." Kelly said the Syrian the government refused to secure the border and al Qaeda operatives are openly working inside Syria.

"The Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi intelligence forces feel that al Qaeda operatives and others operate, live pretty openly on the Syrian side," Kelly said. "And periodically we know that they try to come across."

Kelly said that while al Qaeda has been diminished in the al Qaim region, it still remains a threat to Iraqi and US forces. A May 11 raid in Al Qaim by al Qaeda teams resulted in the death of 11 Iraqi policemen.

The Iraqi border police, with the help of the US military, are "redoubling" efforts to stand up the Iraqi border guards. The military is also rebuilding a berm along the Syrian border in an effort to stop infiltration into Iraq from Syria. "We're doing much more work along the Syrian border than we've done in the past," Kelly said.

isn't this precisely what obama said he'd do to pakistan under just these circumstances?

 

[Transcend]

Once again the Hawkish among the Republicans confuse 2 countries. Afghanistan & Iraq, and now Pakistan & Syria. I know the US education system is bad, but can we please gets some geography classes going? Not surprising as some of the lot is not able to explain where Canada is.

 

[$tinkle]

plainly put, it's the concept of a pre-emptive strike against another sovereign nation at point

 

[wiscodh]

Once again the Hawkish among the Republicans confuse 2 countries. Afghanistan & Iraq, and now Pakistan & Syria. I know the US education system is bad, but can we please gets some geography classes going? Not surprising as some of the lot is not able to explain where Canada is.

I thought canda was the name of a hockey team.........

 

[jimmydean]

Not surprising as some of the lot is not able to explain where Canada is.

 

[Transcend]

Precisely.

 

[splat]

As I said in 2004, the US has never changed parties in a time of war.

????

better check your facts , try 1968

 

[$tinkle]

lbj didn't run for re-election, however. so i believe his main point stands (or should be clarified): we have yet to choose against an eligible & running incumbent, or his party when at end of term.

 

[splat]

lbj didn't run for re-election, however. so i believe his main point stands (or should be clarified): we have yet to choose against an eligible & running incumbent, or his party when at end of term.

I agree , but he said Party , not candidate . and the Party most definatly changed in 1968

 

[jimmydean]

I agree , but he said Party , not candidate . and the Party most definatly changed in 1968

My bad, I should have clarified. Yes, the party changed in 1968. But was that a "war" or a "police action"?

 

[Defenestrated]

My bad, I should have clarified. Yes, the party changed in 1968. But was that a "war" or a "police action"?

"Military Conflict"

also relevant...

The war against us all. This war in Iraq isn’t the end; it’s the beginning of wars to come all around the world at the whim of the neo-cons in the White House.

This is the Bush Doctrine come to life: war, war, and more war. War brought to you by the big corporate masters who run the show.

This isn’t just a war on Iraqis or Afghanis or even Arabs or Muslims. It is ultimately a war on us all. That’s because the billions and billions of dollars that are being spent on this war—the cost of tanks, rocketry, bullets, and yes, even salaries for the 125,000-plus troops—is money that will never be spent on education, on health care, on the reconstruction of crumbling public housing, or to train and place the millions of workers who have lost manufacturing jobs in the past three years alone.

The war in Iraq is, in reality, a war against the nation’s workers and the poor who are getting less and less while the big defense industries are making a killing—literally. What’s next? Iran? Syria? North Korea? Venezuela? We’ve already seen the corporate media play megaphone to the White House to build and promote a war based on lies.

It’s been a long time ago, but that great Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, said, “War is utilized by the imperialists, first and foremost, to crush internal enemies.” We’re seeing the truth of his insight when we see the sad state of American education, the rush of seniors to buy affordable medication from the Canadians because American drugs are just too expensive, the threatened privatization of Social Security, and the wave of repression that comes with an increasingly militarized police. Does the Homeland Security Department make you feel any safer?

In Black America things get grimmer every day as resources that are already scarce begin to shrink even further. Young people feel that prisons are a rite of passage, an inevitable place to visit. And a decent job seems like a distant dream.

This is a war on all of us, and the struggle against war is really a struggle for a better life for the millions of folks who are in need here in this country. The fight against the war is really to fight for your own interests, not the false interests of the defense industries, or the corporate media, or the White House.

Down with the wars for empire!

 

[$tinkle]

i was one of those troops who never got education (2 associates, and most of my undergrad), medical (hernia, knee scope, crabs cream, antibiotics & other sundry meds), and public housing ($$ for off-base housing after living in dorms)

this mumia guy sounds like a well-spring of knowledge. when's he speaking next?

 

[Defenestrated]

hint: he's not talking about military benefits