Russia slams U.S. for "whitewashing" terrorism in Syria

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: Xinhua

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the U.S. position over the Damascus bombing that killed several top Syrian officials was "a direct whitewashing of terrorism."

The comment was made in response to U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland's remarks that the attacks on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's top officials were "not surprising."

"This is a direct justification of terrorism. How should one understand that?" Lavrov told reporters.

In a July 18 suicide bombing attack, Syrian Defense Minister Dawood Rajha was killed along with three other senior officials, including Rajha's deputy, Assef Shawkat, who was also al-Assad's brother-in-law.

The Russian top diplomat said he was surprised that the U.N. Security Council failed to condemn the attack, which Moscow termed as an "act of terror" and demanded the arrest and punishment of those responsible.


Read more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/25/c_131738860.htm

[David__77]

1. This is fair.

I'm sure that US politicians would be quite displeased if there were foreign government spokespersons with similar blitheness about acts of terror committed against the United States.

[nanabugg]

13. It's not only "fair", it's true. How can we condone the and actually take part in

the killings of top government officials of any other nation? Is it only "terrorism" when it happens to our close friends and allies and ourselves?

[Downtown Hound]

2. Funny, haven't heard too much out of Russia about the mass murder and brutal repression

against protesters of the Assad regime. But now they're upset about this bombing? Um, yeah. Whatever Russia.

[David__77]

3. Even if that were true, does it justify the US praise of terrorism?

I would think the US would hold itself to an absolute standard, not a relative one.

[Downtown Hound]

8. Sorry, but I don't consider killing a few fascist assholes

responsible for the deaths of thousands terrorism. I call it revolution, and a deserved one.

[Posteritatis]

7. That's because Russia *likes* said murder and repression. (nt)

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. Russia needs to stop the Assad version spin.

He is NOT under attack by "terrorists".

This just makes Russia look out of touch these days. Hell, I bet their own people are rolling their eyes over this.

I don't consider this any different than a direct hit by a bomb dropped from above, only the delivery system is different.

Did the job too. It took out a LOT of the top people.

This is EXACTLY how they tried to take out Hitler which makes me think it might even have been from people next to Assad that did this. For all we know this might even have been his own purge. If you know the end is near it's time to eliminate the squealers.

[msongs]

5. when our "friends" commit attrocities, they are NOT terrorists Mr. Russian nt

[dmrtndl1]

6. Only as a last resort.

Originally the protesters were non violent. Only after their government failed to listen and only after their government killed thousands upon thousand of men, women and children did the protesters become violent. I say it is not terrorism but a civil war. So bad things happen in war. Get over it Putin and Lavrov.

[EarthCitizen]

9. Who really cares what Russia says in the 21st century anyway?

They're clinging to the edge of the dustbin of history refusing to drop in.

[Igel]

14. Absolutely.

In a multipolar world, when the US speaks everybody must listen to the multipole.

Odd, calling the US a multipole, but there you have it, I guess.

It's rather when there was an international consensus and countries like China and Russia dissenting. "We're unanimous, we're not counting that group over there."

[Comrade Grumpy]

10. Silly people. It's only terrorism when our enemies do it.

Blowing up political figures with car bombs in Afghanistan: bad.

Blowing up political figures with car bombs in Syria: good.

[Comrade Grumpy]

11. "German Intelligence: 'Al Qaeda' All Over Syria"

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NG24Ak02.html

German Intelligence: "al-Qaeda" All Over Syria

By John Rosenthal

July 24, 2012 "Asia Times" -- German intelligence estimates that "around 90" terror attacks that "can be attributed to organizations that are close to al-Qaeda or jihadist groups" were carried out in Syria between the end of December and the beginning of July, as reported by the German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). This was revealed by the German government in a response to a parliamentary question.

In response to the same question, the German government admitted that it had received several reports from the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, on the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla. But it noted that the content of these reports was to remain classified "by reason of national interest", Like many other Western governments, Germany expelled Syria's ambassador in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, holding the Syrian government responsible for the violence.

Meanwhile, at least three major German newspapers - Die Welt, the FAZ, and the mass-market tabloid Bild - have published reports attributing responsibility for the massacre to anti-government rebel forces or treating this as the most probable scenario.

Writing in Bild, longtime German war correspondent Jurgen Todenhofer accused the rebels of "deliberately killing civilians and then presenting them as victims of the government". He described this "massacre-marketing strategy" as being "among the most disgusting things that I have ever experienced in an armed conflict". Todenhofer had recently been to Damascus, where he interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Germany's ARD public television.

<snip>

much more at link

[Comrade Grumpy]

12. And more from the article:

While traveling in the region of Homs, Hackensberger heard similar stories about the conduct of the rebels. One - now former - resident of the city of Qusayr told him that not only were Christians like himself expelled from the town, but that anyone who refused to enroll their children in the Free Syrian Army had been shot. Hackensberger's source held foreign Islamists responsible for the atrocities.

"I have seen them with my own eyes," he said, "Pakistanis, Libyans, Tunisians and also Lebanese. They call Osama bin Laden their sheikh."

A Sunni resident of Homs told Hackensberger that he had witnessed how an armed group stopped a bus: "The passengers were divided into two groups: on the one side, Sunnis; on the other, Alawis." According to Hackenberger's source, the insurgents then proceeded to decapitate the nine Alawi passengers.

That the German government would cite national interest in refusing to disclose its information concerning the circumstances of the Houla massacre is particularly notable in light of Germany's support for the rebellion and its political arm, the Syrian National Council (SNC).

While France, the United Kingdom, and the United States have figured as the most visible Western powers supporting the rebellion, Germany has been quietly playing a major role behind the scenes. According to a new report in the FAZ, the German foreign office is working with representatives of the Syrian opposition to develop "concrete plans" for a "political transition" in Syria following the fall of Assad.

John Rosenthal is a journalist who specializes on European politics and transatlantic security issues. His website is Transatlantic Intelligencer

(Copyright 2012 John Rosenthal.)