Did you know this???

Two Things You Don't Know About Syria (If You Only Read The Mainstream Press)

Posted by Daniel McAdams

1) The current events are not some new phenomenon, are not directly tied to the phony "Arab Spring" democratization movement (Saudi Arabia promoting democracy? Are you joking?). In fact this is a flare up of longstanding attempts to overthrow the Syrian government dating back at least to the 1970s. The rebels' modus operandi -- using civilians as human shields, bombing civilian areas, mutilating bodies, cutting arms and legs off of their war prisoners -- is nothing new. What is new is the intensity of US/UK/GCC aid to the rebels which is allowing them to flex their violent instincts more effectively.

2) The Muslim Brotherhood presented as radical Islam's rush to fill the void left by the fall of dictators is likewise a load of propaganda. As Seymour Hersh wrote back in 2007, the Muslim Brotherhood is far from a radical Islamic threat to the US and Israel -- they have been on the payroll the US and Israel for years! As Hersh wrote back then:

"A former high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, 'The Americans have provided both political and financial support (to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood). The Saudis are taking the lead with financial support, but there is American involvement.'”

Now we have an excellent article by Robert Dreyfuss, a well-known and respected contributing editor for The Nation, explaining in detail the above two points -- the two things that you will not know if you only follow Syria in the mainstream (or even some alternative) media outlets.

Writes Dreyfuss:

"No one outside Syria knows who the rebels are. The outside groups, such as the Syrian National Council and other self-styled spokesmen, have unclear ties to the forces on the ground. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood is a major player, both inside and out. And the Muslim Brotherhood has been battling Assad at least since the 1970s, when it carried out a series of assassinations and bombings against the government of Hafez Assad, Bashar Assad's late father. Many quick-study Syria experts point to the brutal put-down of the Brotherhood-led rebellion in Hama in 1982. But the Muslim Brotherhood's war against Assad had long been raging even before that, including a horrific incident in June 1979, when the Muslim Brotherhood gang attacked a military school in Aleppo, Syria, and butchered eighty-three cadets, In November 1981, a massive car bomb linked to Islamist rebels killed 200 people in Damascus. During this period, the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria had covert support from Israel and from Israel's agents in Lebanon, including the infamous Major Saad Haddad, a Lebanese military officer recruited as an Israeli pawn in south Lebanon."

To understand the present, it is wise to look to the recent past. Things are not always what they seem. Look for ties, who pays the bills, who pulls the strings. Therein is a clue to the real agenda.

Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/116157.html#more-116157