U.S. Military Is Sent to Jordan to Help With Crisis in Syria

[Desperado]

The United States military has secretly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan

So much for secretly if it is in the NY Times.



U.S. Military Is Sent to Jordan to Help With Crisis in Syria
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: October 9, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/wo...isis.html?_r=1

Just kind of reminded me that we are still "Team America"


WASHINGTON — The United States military has secretly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan to help the armed forces there handle a flood of Syrian refugees, prepare for the possibility that Syria will lose control of its chemical weapons and be positioned should the turmoil in Syria expand into a wider conflict.

 

[Franticfrank]

Interesting but not surprising. If it turns into a wider regional conflict, I'm sure the Turks will handle it.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "So what if we are? - dat Assad needs to go...

Is U.S. Training Syrian Rebels in Jordan? State Dept. Won’t Say
March 12, 2013 – The State Department on Monday declined to confirm or deny reports that the United States is involved in training Syrian anti-regime rebels in Jordan, a development that -- if true -- would signal a deepening involvement in an increasingly messy conflict.

Two leading European publications -– Germany’s Der Spiegel and the British Guardian –- reported in recent days that U.S. personnel are training some Syrians in the neighboring country. Citing Jordanian security sources, organizers and participants in the program, the reports said the focus was on training non-radical elements – senior army officers who had defected, according to Friday’s Guardian account.

Sunday’s report in the German news magazine also tied the program to an effort to counter radical Islamists in the opposition, and said the aim was to build up units comprising a total of around 10,000 fighters. A Mideast analyst warned Monday that the policy runs risks. “It has been suggested that these are only Syrian army defectors who are thus likely not to be from radical Islamist groups including the [Muslim] Brotherhood,” Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel, said in an analysis. “But is that selectivity certain? Finding out who is receiving this military training – which they are sure to use for other purposes in future – should be a priority in the national debate and in questions from Congress.”

Der Spiegel said the training, which focused on anti-tank weapons, had been going on in Jordan for three months; the Guardian report said it had been taking place “since last year,” and that British and French instructors were also involved in a U.S.-led program. During a press briefing Monday State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in reply to a question on the claims, “I have nothing for you on that.” A reporter then said Der Spiegel was a reputable publication and asked Nuland whether she was “rejecting” the report, but she simply repeated her answer. “So you’re not rejecting it; it could be happening?” she was asked. “You may parse that however you want,” Nuland said. “I have nothing for you on it.”

MORE

 

[waltky]

Syria's children bein' targeted in civil war...

Syria's children targeted and under fire
13 March 2013 - Spare the children. That is what so many have said for so long. But in Syria, the littlest ones are not, as we often say, just "caught in the crossfire".

They are being targeted. "Childhood under fire," warns the Save the Children charity in a new report. "A lost generation," lamented the UN children's fund Unicef on Tuesday. "A war on childhood," regretted the War Child charity last year. Syrian children are too young to understand the intricacies of a complex and brutal war fought in the name of their future.

But they know what childhood should feel like. "You should tell her," insisted a young boy in a Damascus suburb when his frightened mother cautiously told me "everything is fine" not far from where soldiers manned a checkpoint. "The helicopters attacked yesterday," he earnestly explained in a little person's voice and with a big person's courage. "We are staying in our houses because we're really scared. We're begging them to stop." But the war is not stopping; it is getting worse.

Many Syrian children have reportedly experienced the death of a relative or friend

The latest report, from Save the Children, cites research that one in three children say they have been hit, kicked or shot at, as fighting between rebels and government forces has escalated over the past two years. "My best friend Kholoud died right in front my eyes when we were playing," a brave 12-year-old told us last year as she fought back tears in a so-called "child-friendly space" run by War Child in northern Lebanon, home to many refugees. "A bullet went through her cheek and came out through her neck."

Randa's own house was hit by a rocket in the city of Homs: a wall fell on her mother, father, and younger brother. "My mother said, 'Thank God we survived.'" But then the family fled, like millions of other Syrians.

'Absolutely terrified'

See also:

Syria's war affects generation of children
Mar 13,`13 -- Mohammed works at a Beirut supermarket where he waits on customers and carries their groceries home for a small tip that the 14-year-old saves to send later to his family in a village in northeastern Syria.

He is among hundreds of thousands of Syrian children who have dropped out of school and fled two years of conflict that have claimed the lives of more than 70,000 people. He is also one of countless young Syrians now frequently seen wandering the streets of Beirut, pumping gas at stations and sometimes begging for money. Aid groups warn that some 2 million children in Syria are facing, among other things, malnutrition, disease, early marriage and severe trauma as a result of the civil war.

To mark the second anniversary of the uprising against President Bashar Assad, the Britain-based charity Save the Children released a report Wednesday entitled "Childhood Under Fire." It says the conflict has left many children traumatized, unable to go to school and struggling to find enough to eat. "I have to say I have been shocked and horrified by the stories that I've heard from the children here in Lebanon who fled from Syria," Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, told The Associated Press at the group's offices in Beirut. "You never want to hear a child talk about watching their friend killed or their father tortured in front of them or their brother shot through the leg," added Forsyth, who spent several days in Lebanon last week meeting children among the estimated 320,000 Syrian refugees who have fled to the neighboring country.

Syria's children will need decades to heal from the trauma, he warned. Similarly, a report issued by UNICEF Tuesday said unrelenting violence, massive population displacement, and damage to infrastructure and essential services caused by the Syrian conflict risk leaving an entire generation of children scarred for life. "As millions of children inside Syria and across the region witness their past and their futures disappear amidst the rubble and destruction of this prolonged conflict, the risk of them becoming a lost generation grows every day," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

The report said that in areas where the fighting is most intense, few people have access to fresh water. Also, one in five schools has been destroyed, damaged, or is being used to shelter displaced families. In Aleppo, the center of months of fighting, only 6 percent of children are attending school, the report said. At the same time, children are traumatized by seeing family members and friends killed and terrified by the sounds and scenes of conflict.

MORE

 

[SteadyMercury]

The United States military has secretly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan

So much for secretly if it is in the NY Times.

Or announced by the Secretary of Defense in a press conference


Panetta: US sends forces to Jordan - Yahoo! News

The United States has sent military troops to the Jordan-Syria border to bolster that country's military capabilities in the event that violence escalates along its border with Syria, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday. Speaking at a NATO conference of defense ministers in Brussels, Panetta said the U.S. has been working with Jordan to monitor chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria and also to help Jordan deal with refugees pouring over the border from Syria. The troops are also building a headquarters for themselves.

 

[waltky]

U.S. troop build-up in Jordan...

Step toward possible military intervention in Syria
April 17, 2013 - The Pentagon is sending about 200 troops to Jordan to help deliver aid to refugees and to plan for possible military action, including a rapid buildup of forces.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is sending about 200 troops to Jordan, the vanguard of a potential U.S. military force of 20,000 or more that could be deployed if the Obama administration decides to intervene in Syria to secure chemical weapons arsenals or to prevent the 2-year-old civil war from spilling into neighboring nations. Troops from the 1st Armored Division will establish a small headquarters near Jordan's border with Syria to help deliver humanitarian supplies for a growing flood of refugees and to plan for possible military operations, including a rapid buildup of American forces if the White House decides intervention is necessary, senior U.S. officials said.

Although the Pentagon has sent Patriot missile batteries to Turkey and several dozen U.S. troops already are in Jordan to assist with aid flights and other operations, the move marks the first deployment that Pentagon officials explicitly described as a possible step toward direct military involvement in Syria. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who disclosed the deployment Wednesday in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, made clear that both he and President Obama remained deeply wary of intervening in Syria just as U.S. forces are trying to withdraw from 12 years of war in Afghanistan.

But U.S. officials say they have stepped up preparations because the Syrian civil war shows few signs of abating, and a political settlement that includes the departure of President Bashar Assad appears increasingly unlikely. "Military intervention is always an option, but it should be an option of last resort," Hagel said. He warned that a major deployment could "embroil the U.S. in a significant, lengthy and uncertain military commitment." Forces loyal to Assad hold power in Damascus, the Syrian capital, and control large parts of other major cities. Rebel militias have made gains near the Turkish border in the north and in southern Dara province near Jordan.

Assad's forces are increasingly relying on air power and artillery to hold back the rebels, although reports from Syria in the last week suggest they may have been able to retake some territory in ground fighting in several areas. Among the most formidable of the many rebel factions fighting the government is Al Nusra Front, which recently acknowledged that it is aligned with Al Qaeda. The strength of Al Nusra Front has deepened fears in Washington and in much of the Middle East, including in Israel, that Assad's stockpiles of poison gases and other chemical weapons agents could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists.

MORE

See also:

U.S. military to step up presence in Jordan in light of Syria civil war
April 17th, 2013 - In a critical indication of growing U.S. military involvement in the civil war in Syria, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the deployment of more American troops to Jordan.

Hagel announced the deployment, which was first reported on CNN, in a statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. He said the troops will work alongside Jordanian forces to "improve readiness and prepare for a number of scenarios." The troops, which will number up to 200, are from the headquarters of the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, two Defense Department officials told CNN. The deployment "creates an additional capability" beyond what has been there, one official said, and will give the United States the ability to "potentially form a joint task force for military operations, if ordered."

The new deployment will include communications and intelligence specialists who will assist the Jordanians and "be ready for military action" if President Barack Obama were to order it, the official said. There have been several dozen American troops, mainly special forces, in Jordan for the past year assisting the Jordanians.

But that group has been very ad hoc, the official said. This new deployment makes the U.S. military presence more official and is the first formalized ongoing presence of an American military unit in the Kingdom in recent years. This comes as the Pentagon has recently reviewed military options for Syria although Obama has not ordered any to be put into action. Hagel cautioned lawmakers about the difficulties surrounding any direct U.S. military action in Syria. "It could embroil the United States in a significant, lengthy, and uncertain military commitment," he said.

He called military intervention "an option, but an option of last resort." Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said the United States could send troops to Syria if the regime of President Bashar al-Assad fell to rebels, if needed, to secure the country's chemical weapons cache. But when asked if he was confident the United States could secure them, Dempsey said, "Not as I sit here today simply because they have been moving it, and the number of sites is quite numerous."

U.S. military to step up presence in Jordan in light of Syria civil war ? CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

 

[waltky]

Jordan gettin' Patriot missiles to shoot down Syrian missiles...

U.S., Jordan discuss placing Patriot missile batteries in Jordan
May 31st, 2013 > The United States and Jordan are actively discussing the possibility of sending American Patriot missile batteries to Jordan to boost its defenses as the civil war in Syria continues to threaten the region, according to a senior Pentagon official.

He emphasized that an agreement to undertake such an operation has not yet been reached. Even though Jordanian officials have long said they do not believe the Syrian regime would attack Jordan, there have been increased efforts by Amman to boost its military cooperation with the United States as violence spreads.

If an agreement is reached, the Patriot batteries could be reassigned from other areas in the region, although U.S. officials declined to say where they are currently located. It's possible the missile batteries could be flown to Jordan within days and used initially as part of the upcoming multinational military exercise in June, the official said.

If that happens, they would be publicly portrayed as part of that training. But there could be a decision to leave them there for some weeks after the exercise. Jordanian officials, including Information Minister Mohammad Momani, have been widely quoted in recent days as saying Jordan wants Patriot missiles placed there.

Source

 

[WillowTree]

Now why in hell would we waste one more American life in the Middle East?

 

[depotoo]

The United States military has secretly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan

So much for secretly if it is in the NY Times.



U.S. Military Is Sent to Jordan to Help With Crisis in Syria
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: October 9, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/wo...isis.html?_r=1

Just kind of reminded me that we are still "Team America"
America fuck yeah-team america - YouTube

WASHINGTON — The United States military has secretly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan to help the armed forces there handle a flood of Syrian refugees, prepare for the possibility that Syria will lose control of its chemical weapons and be positioned should the turmoil in Syria expand into a wider conflict.

wonder if they will now be listed as a co-conspirator when they investigate that leak?

 

[georgephillip]

If it's true that war is a racket, which side(s)? of the Global War on Terror are US elites and al-Qa'ida fighting on?

"The following video features Hillary Clinton candidly acknowledging that America created and funded Al Qaeda as a terrorist organization in the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war.

"What she does not mention is that at no time in the course of the last 30 years has the US ceased to support and finance Al Qaeda as a means to destabilizing sovereign countries.

"The Global War on Terror (GWOT) is led by the United States.

"It is not directed against Al Qaeda.

"Quite the opposite: The 'Global War on Terrorism' uses Al Qaeda terrorist operatives as their foot soldiers.

“'Political Islam' and the imposition of an 'Islamic State' (modeled on Qatar or Saudi Arabia) is an integral part of US foreign policy."

Hillary Clinton: ?We Created Al Qaeda?. The Protagonists of the ?Global War on Terrorism? are the Terrorists | Global Research