According to Jim W. Dean, the United States , UK , France and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf that have engaged in a long-fought war against Syria have a variety of motives for trying to dismantle and bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
As for a motive, the West wants to cut off arms supply routes through Syria to Hezbollah and to be able to stage bases in Northern Syrian for offense against Iran both with planes and missiles. That is the military reason. They also want to block Iran’s long term pipeline access to the Mediterranean Sea that way, in case Turkey had a change of heart over running the lines into their system. And the Saudis and Qatar both want a land route to the Mediterranean over territory they effectively control, Jim W. Dean made the remarks in an exclusive with Kourosh Ziabari for the Fars News Agency.
Jim W. Dean is the managing editor of the Veterans Today, an online foreign policy and military affairs journal. He has been writing, speaking and doing public relations, television, consulting and multimedia projects for different American heritage, historical, military, veterans and intelligence organizations.
Q: What are in your view the roots of the current crisis and unrest in Syria? Do you agree that certain extremist elements in Syria and foreign forces tried to confiscate the peaceful protests in mid-March 2011 and turn it into a violent and bloody civil war with the aim of dismantling the government of President Bashar al-Assad?
A: Westerners did not have a good view of the initial intrigues. It was assumed to be instigated by the Arab Spring. Later, it appeared that it had to be an outside instigated uprising to be able to attempt to subdue a 400,000 man army. The long standing minority/majority, bad blood and rivalries were more known to some of us and that with the obvious major powers long wanting to take Syria out, we began to see the uprising as bait to bring that outside support in, copying Libya as a model.
Q: The Al-Nusra Front has been designated by the United Nations and even the United States and Australia as a terrorist organization. However, we don’t see any serious practical action aimed at disarming this dangerous group which is intent on bringing down the Syrian government and is seemingly not afraid of killing the innocent civilians. What’s the reason?
A: No, and there probably won’t be any efforts to disarm them. It seems some are more equal than others. Who would take action against Qatar and the Saudis? No one in the West. Would non interference China do it? No. Would Russia? No. The EU or NATO? So they both know this; that they have a free pass, even from the UN that has almost disappeared. Syria played a part in humiliating them with non-cooperation so they left. So now when Syria could use some UN attention for publicity, they get none.
The al-Nusra people should have had drone campaign going on them for some months now. But who would base it? There are surveillance drones being used, even by the U.S. out of Jordan, and a key part of that is helping Iraq try to keep a handle on it long border. Would Iraq base drones to be used against them? No. Would Turkey?
So it is like us here, going around to all the top law enforcement people for advice on getting prosecutions on our own 9/11 perpetrators here, or busting up the Israeli espionage networks here, and they just say that as much as they hate to say it, there is no place to go where anyone would prosecute these people. So the judicial arm here has been totally compromised, the federal courts, and the Supreme Court which would not touch either item. It is a failure of government that our Founding Fathers never anticipated, and would require a new branch of government to ever take responsibility for a separate law enforcement and judicial branch; a super internal affairs department that answered to the people only and was not under Congress or the White House.
The UN will not even put out a warrant for the organ eater despite his video admission. The big guy with the huge beard who cut the priests head off should be clearly identifiable, but there is not a word about putting international warrants out for them. It makes the War on Terror a complete hoax, which really has always been.
Q: It’s reported that so far, 1,000 Syrian government officials have been assassinated and killed by the armed rebels and foreign-backed terrorists. So, it’s clear that the main objective of the terrorists is to overthrow the government of President Assad and bring to power a quisling regime. In what ways do the Western powers and Arab monarchies benefit from the disintegration of the Syrian government?
A: These numbers are not known in the West because they are censored in the media as they show an obvious terror campaign and not one conducted by a rag tag group of amateurs, but professionally trained killers and this means certain countries are sponsoring that being done.
As for a motive, the West wants to cut off arms supply routes through Syria to Hezbollah and to be able to stage bases in Northern Syrian for offense against Iran both with planes and missiles. That is the military reason. They also want to block Iran’s long term pipeline access to the Mediterranean Sea that way, in case Turkey had a change of heart over running the lines into their system. And the Saudis and Qatar both want a land route to the Mediterranean over territory they effectively control.
Q: In the recent months, Israel has been actively engaged in an anti-Syrian campaign aimed at paralyzing the Syrian army and empowering the opposition groups, including the armed rebels and terrorists. Is Israel trying to take over the political and military establishment of Syria in this unequal proxy war?
A: Israel has always been at war with Syria as part of its bogeyman stature of needing outside threats to keep the country militarized. Syria has not been an offensive threat to Israel really for a long time. But the issue the media will not discuss is the real fear they have, that is the mini-nuke warheads being put on the shorter range rockets which make them an effective response to Israeli preemptive strikes. And the West has already used tactical mini-nukes. They let that Frankenstein out, so now the other side can use them in reply. This is being hidden from the world’s public opinion for obvious reasons as the threat was created by the West, and then like the Stuxnet virus, it has escaped.
Q: What do you think about the role the Takfiri and Salafist groups are playing in the ongoing crisis in Syria? Many international organizations have accused these sects of committing war crimes against the Syrian population and the government’s security forces. What are these extremist groups looking for?
A: They are a mixed bag with mixed motives, varying from thugs that love this kind of war as they have a kind of immunity. Then you have your religious zealots and crazies, and then those for the Warlord and looting aspects, like a Mafia carving up territory. The West is creating a whole new Taliban, Al-Qaeda type network after ten years of fighting a failed War on Terror. We had 100,000 troops in Afghanistan when the commanders were estimating under a 100-member Al-Qaeda in the country. We manufacture that great volume a day now. It is total insanity and many here in the Intel and military community feel that way.
Q: The Financial Times has reported that Qatar has funded the Syrian rebellion by as much as $3 billion over 2011 and 2012, but as of May 2013, Saudi Arabia is the main supplier of arms and ammunitions to the Syrian opposition. The Qatari government also pays $50,000 a year to every Syrian family which defects and escapes from the country. The Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have suspended Syria’s membership and given new seats to the Free Syrian Army as the representative of the Syrian people. What do you think about the position adopted by the Arab states regarding the situation in Syria? Why have they become so belligerent toward the Syrian government?
A: This went over everybody’s heads here in the West. Why are the refugee camps full of the Qataris handing out $50K checks? Are they trying to increase their population? Are they looking for grateful people to someday join a Saudi Praetorian Guard to help the Royal family keep its country subdued? Or were they looking to acquire new territory that is not all sand and an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea?
Q: In the recent weeks, the Syrian army has made important progresses and advances in defending such cities as Homs, Bab Hood, Idlib, Aleppo and Damascus. What’s your prediction for the future of Syrian Army’s operations against the rebels and the foreign-backed terrorists? Will they succeed in cleansing more areas and bringing peace to the whole country?
A: They have learned how to operate against the rebels, and have had some assistance there. The Syrian army is highly motivated and highly trained now. But the West is upping the retaliation now, using the Saudis who don’t care what anybody thinks to bring the heavier weapons in. So we have the Saudi Arabia and Qatar as the new upscale terror regimes in the area, and the UN has not uttered a word. No one has said anything, which is very dangerous as in sets others to thinking they could do the same thing.
The West and their Persian Gulf buddies have created more threats and instability than what the Taliban and Al-Qaeda even imagined, but as the people of those countries protest somewhat, the Egyptian youth passed them all by effectively in just one month when they collected 22 million signatures to demand early elections to take the Brotherhood out. Maybe we will have to ask these people to teach the rest of us how to do it.
Q: And finally, what’s your perspective on the U.S., UK and France’s war threats against Syria? Will they finally realize their threats of military intervention into Syria?
A: Their intervention is using the endless supply of Arab young people as cannon fodder. God only knows why the bankrupt Britain and France are involved so much, other than their respective Israeli lobbies insisting, which is a sad story for another time, how government after government has betrayed their own people to curry favor with these ruthless bums. They are like al-Nusra as they cut off people’s livelihoods and cut their institutions up into little pieces and then devour those parts they like the best. A Hollywood script writer could never have dreamed what they have done to the world. We had the War on Terror on the wrong people, but again, that is a story for another day, also.
Kourosh Ziabari is an award-winning Iranian journalist and media correspondent. He writes for Global Research, CounterCurrents.org, Tehran Times, Iran Review and other publications across the world. His articles and interviews have been translated in 10 languages. His website is http://kouroshziabari.com