American Troops Said To Be Massing In Jordan On Syria's Border...

[paulitician]

I know this post will unleash Anti-Blogger wrath but here goes anyway...

A blogger with contacts in Jordan is reporting that hundreds of foreign military groups, including American forces, are moving into the region around Jordan’s Al-Mafraq military base in north Jordan, about 5-10 km from the border with Syria. These include forces that are being diverted from Iraq, as the U.S. completes its final withdrawal from Iraq.

This is the first time that U.S. boots have hit the ground directly opposite the army of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad. Jordan’s King Abdullah II has approved this deployment because of Assad’s threats to “burn the whole region,” with Jordan being a particularly vulnerable target of al-Assad’s wrath.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security
14-Dec-11 World View — American Troops Said To Be Massing In Jordan On Syria’s Border

 

[High_Gravity]

Hmm, hundreds is not really enough to invade Syria though.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Looks like the Middle East is getting ready to blow up again. Good thing Obama is bringing the troops home! Oh wait...
DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security

As the US completes its final withdrawal from Iraq, American special forces troops have been diverted to positions in Jordan opposite a Syrian tank concentration building up across the kingdom's northern border.

Navy deploys to the Middle East:
USS Lincoln departs Everett for last time | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News

The aircraft carrier is headed back to the Middle East where its fighter jets will back up U.S. troops in Afghanistan. (ED:and other places that can't be mentioned)

Inb4: "We have troops all over the world! This means nothing!"

 

[Mad Scientist]

Hmm, hundreds is not really enough to invade Syria though.

This is true but Special Forces are trained to go behind enemy lines and fuck shit up before an invasion happens.

 

[paulitician]

The Cold Winds of War are a blowin. I can feel it in the air.

 

[ba1614]

They aren't "wars" anymore, they are "overseas contingencies".

 

[Douger]

Hmmmm Sorting through the script a bit.
Isaiah. Damascus ruinous heap-turned to rubble. Sounds like a blast (literally!)

 

[paulitician]

They aren't "wars" anymore, they are "overseas contingencies".

That what they're calling em these days?

 

[Avatar4321]

Wars and rumors of wars.

 

[waltky]

Syria up to sumpin'...

Syria deploys Russian anti-sea missiles on coast, Scuds on Turkish border
December 16, 2011, Russian military and diplomatic support for the Assad regime was underscored by the deployment Friday, Dec. 16, of advanced Moscow-supplied Yakhont (SSN-26) shore-to-sea missiles along Syria's Mediterranean shore to fend off a potential Western-Turkish invasion by sea.

Last week, Russia airlifted to Syria 3 million face masks against chemical and biological weapons and the Admiral Kutznetsov carrier and strike group was sent on its way to Syria's Mediterranean port of Tartus. Russian naval sources in Moscow stressed that the flotilla is armed with the most advanced weapons against submarines and aerial attack. Upon arrival, the Russian craft will launch a major marine-air maneuver in which Syrian units will take part. Syria has received from Russia 72 Yakhont missiles able to hit marine targets up to a distance of 300 kilometers - i.e., over the horizon, our military sources report. The missile's radar remains inert, making it hard to detect, until it is close to target. It is then switched on to guide its aim. Its high speed – 2,000 kmh – enables the Yakhont to strike before its target has time to activate self-defense systems.

Thursday night, in response to the deployment of 21 Syrian Scuds on the Turkish border, including five with chemical warheads, Ankara convened its top military council and declared its armed forces ready for war. Syria also rushed armored reinforcements to the Jordanian border. debkafile's military and intelligence sources report that the rush of Syrian war moves backed by Russia indicates that both believe a Western-Arab force is on the point of invading Syria. They are keeping an eye especially on Turkey which is suspected of having obtained a NATO marine and air umbrella, including the US Sixth Fleet, for military preparations aimed at ousting Bashar Assad, so repeating the operation against Libya's Muammar Qaddafi. The diplomatic flurry around Syria was accentuated by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's arrival in Ankara Friday morning to find Turkish armed forces on war preparedness, and Syrian Vice President Farouk A-Shara's landing in Moscow for a crisis conference with Russian leaders. Thursday night, Dec. 15, debkafile reported:

War tensions around Syria rose alarmingly Thursday night, Dec. 15, when Turkey's top military council convened "to review the armed forces' preparedness for war" in response to the deployment of Syrian missiles, some tipped with chemical warheads, on their common border. debkafile's military sources report the meeting was led by Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The Assad government also rushed armored units in two directions - to the Turkish frontier and also to the Jordanian border opposite the US special operations units from Iraq newly deployed to defend Jordan against a Syrian attack, as debkafile reported on Dec. 13 Our sources report that 21 Syrian missile launchers, five of them Scud D with chemical warheads, are deployed in northern Syria opposite the Turkish Hatai (Alexandretta) district. They were moved up in broad daylight to make sure Western spy satellites and Turkish intelligence surveillance saw them. More are on the way. In Israel, the IDF announced it was reconstituting the special command for operations behind enemy lines under the command of Brig. Gen. Shay Avital.

Before the military council convened in Ankara, Turkey placed its border contingents, air force and navy on war preparedness. The official statement said the high military council had "assessed Turkish army needs and necessary steps to address these requirements…" The Turkish press repeated a statement by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in an interview two weeks ago that Turkey does not want to consider a military option for intervention in neighboring Syria as Damascus cracks down on popular protest, but it is ready for any scenario. The Turkish army has prepared operational plans for seizing parts of northern Syria if the situation there continues to deteriorate. Those plans would essentially carve Syria into two entities, with the Turkish army holding the north and protecting opposition and civilian populations, while the Syrian army and Assad loyalists would remain in control of the central and southern regions.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security

See also:

Syrian Army defector: We were given killing quotas by Assad regime
December 16, 2011 - Two new human rights reports detail abuses by the Assad regime, but also show a growing use of violence by the opposition.

The violence in Syria appears to be worsening, as Syrian troops renewed their attacks on protesters in the key opposition city of Homs and military defectors launched one of the largest attacks yet on government forces. And a new report provides evidence from defectors that Syrian forces are being ordered to use deadly force against unarmed civilian protesters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based watchdog with a network of contacts in Syria, says that Syrian forces opened fire on protesters, killing one, after traditional Friday prayers today in the city of Homs, writes the Associated Press. The group says that 200,000 people took to the streets in Homs to protest the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. AP notes that it could not confirm the report, due to Syria's ban on foreign journalists.

But the opposition has also stepped up violence, as the number of military defectors increases. The New York Times reports that, according to the Observatory, defectors killed 27 Syrian troops around the city of Daraa, in an apparently coordinated assault on sites inside and outside the city. If true, the Thursday morning attack would be one of the largest and most sophisticated yet by the opposition against Syrian forces. The Observatory did not give any information about the defectors' casualties in the attack. The Times adds that residents living in the city have confirmed fighting between armed groups in the area, with the Syrian forces suffering casualties. The Observatory has reported four attacks against government forces this week, including an attack on Wednesday that left eight Syrian troops dead. The attacks come the same week that the UN revised its estimates of the death toll in the Syrian conflict upwards to 5,000. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said that she recommends that the UN Security Council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court to investigate the regime for war crimes.

In addition, Human Right Watch released a new report Thursday, "By All Means Necessary." Based on interviews with Syrian military defectors, it detailed orders they were given to use deadly force and torture against Syrian unarmed protesters. HRW found that "military commanders and officials in the intelligence agencies gave both direct and standing orders to use lethal force against the protesters," citing 20 specific instances in the report, and said senior Syrian officials, including President Assad, bear responsibility for the abuses committed by their subordinates. HRW writes that all the defectors reported being under standing orders to “stop the protests at any cost” and “by all means necessary,” and often were explicitly ordered to use lethal force against protesters. A soldier recounted one such incident in which troops were told to shoot at protesters:

On August 27 we were near a police hospital in Harasta. About 1,500 protesters came there. They requested the release of an injured protester who was inside the hospital. They held olive branches. They had no arms. There were 35 army soldiers and about 50 mukhabarat [intelligence] personnel at the checkpoint. We also had a jeep with a mounted machine-gun. When the protesters were less than 100 meters away, we opened fire. We had previously received the orders to do so from [Brigadier General Talal Makhlouf]. Five protesters were hit, and I believe two of them died.

A sniper deployed in May near the key opposition city of Homs said that soldiers were given quotas of casualties they should inflict. "During the protests, the commanders gave us a specific number, or a percentage, of protesters who should be liquidated. For 5,000 protesters, for example, the target would be 15-20 people," he said. Another defector, a soldier sent to suppress protests in Douma in April, said "At one point we killed eight people in 15 minutes. The protesters were unarmed. They didn’t even have rocks! That’s when I decided to defect." The report is based on interviews HRW conducted with 63 defectors from Syrian military and intelligence agencies between May and November 2011. Interviewees included troops deployed all over the country, including the flashpoints of Damascus, Daraa, and Homs, and their positions ranged from conscripted soldier to lieutenant colonel.

Source

 

[paulitician]

Get onboard the War Machine cuz it's full steam ahead.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Wag the dog.

 

[paulitician]

Wag the dog.

Could be. Wouldn't be the first time.

 

[geauxtohell]

It is said that if you stare into a mirror and say "Bloody Mary" 100 times, she will appear.

 

[geauxtohell]

Hmm, hundreds is not really enough to invade Syria though.

This is true but Special Forces are trained to go behind enemy lines and fuck shit up before an invasion happens.

And they don't make a habit of "massing" anywhere that they can be seen by some doofus blooger of his "Jordanian contacts".

 

[geauxtohell]

We are probably just going into Syria to find all those WMDs that Saddam snuck over there. I am sure the right wing would support that, right?

 

[Colin]

It is said that if you stare into a mirror and say "Bloody Mary" 100 times, she will appear.

I'll give it a go, but I think I'll say 'Long Island Iced Tea' in preference to Bloody Mary.

 

[bodecea]

Be Afraid. Be very Afraid.

 

[9thIDdoc]

Thank God we have a community organizer!!

 

[geauxtohell]

Be Afraid. Be very Afraid.

Truly, only Ron Paul can save us from such a fate..............