Syria believed to have freed London bombings mastermind
Telegraph, London
February 06, 2012

LONDON: The alleged terrorist mastermind behind the July 7, 2005, London bombings is reported to have been freed from a Syrian jail by President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Known as Abu Musab al-Suri, he had been held in Syria for six years after being captured by the CIA in 2005 and transported to the country of his birth under its controversial rendition program.

But he is said to have been released as a warning to the US and Britain of the consequences of turning their backs on the regime as it tries to contain the uprising in Syria.

Al-Suri, also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, was al-Qaeda's operations chief in Europe and has been accused of planning the London bombings in which four British-born terrorists detonated three bombs on the Underground and another on a bus, killing 52 people and injuring more than 700 in 2005.

In a statement released after the attacks, al-Suri said: ''[In my teachings] I have mentioned vital and legitimate targets to be hit in the enemy's countries … Among those targets that I specifically mentioned as examples was the London Underground. [Targeting this] was and still is the aim.''

A mechanical engineer, he is also wanted in Spain in connection with the Madrid train bombings in 2004, which left 191 dead, and for links to an attack on the Paris Metro in 1995.

BREAKING: U.S. Closes embassy in Syria
CNN By Elise Labott
February 6th, 2012
08:45 AM ET

The U.S. State Department shuttered its embassy in Syria and pulled out its remaining staff Monday after the government refused to address its security concerns, senior State Department officials tell CNN.

The officials said 17 employees, including Ambassador Robert Ford, left the country. Two employees flew out of the Syria last week by commercial air, with the rest of them, including Ford, traveling by convoy Monday morning to Jordan. Most of the staff were evacuated earlier in the year, and the diplomatic team was further reduced in December.

The Syrians were notified about the decision to pull the staff and shutter the embassy after the employees were out of the country, the officials said.

The officials said the deterioration of the situation in the country made it impossible for the embassy to continue operations and for the staff to remain.

Picasso Moon wrote:Bad joke! London 7/7/05 was an inside job. The bombs in the subway cars were UNDER the cars, not inside them, as per the damage. Netanyahu just happened to be in London that day, just like it just happened that there were "terrorism exercises" going on at the time.

Picasso Moon wrote:http://london.southeastasianews.org/plantedevidence091108.html
More on 7/7/05

Reporting from Beirut— Syrian authorities blocked an aid convoy from entering the former rebel enclave of Baba Amr in the city of Homs, the Red Cross said Friday, as opposition activists alleged that security forces were carrying out revenge killings in the district.[Opposition fighters have pulled out of the district]
Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, called it unacceptable that residents of the battered neighborhood had not received aid.
The Red Cross said a seven-vehicle convoy carrying medical assistance, food, water and other necessities from Damascus, the Syrian capital, reached Homs but was denied entry to the Baba Amr sector[just a day after the regime approved the entrance of the convoy]. The organization said it hoped the supplies could enter Saturday.
[. A couple of days ago, the Syrian government claimed it found the body of Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa in Homs. Well, he appeared on global media yesterday, quite alive, in Lebanon!.
I am totally opposed to US/NATO intervention. But i'm quite sickened by attempts to defend the Assad regime on the basis that any target of the American empire should be defended no matter what, given how evil the empire is. This sort of thinking betrays a post-modernist approach which denies that there is such a thing as truth, only strategy. If there is no truth, there cannot be such a thing as a lie either. And those who say that it doesn't matter if Syria's government closely cooperated with the empire and even tortured people on its behalf before. They are either grossly unaware of just how Orwellian their "logic" is, or are just plain oblivious to it]

In testimony before a Senate committee Wednesday, the Pentagon’s civilian and uniformed chiefs confirmed that they are drawing up war plans against Syria at the request of the Obama White House.
The statements by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey came amid mounting evidence that Washington and its key European allies, working in conjunction with the right-wing monarchical regimes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are escalating a covert intervention aimed at bringing about Syrian regime change.........
General Dempsey cautioned that a US intervention in Syria would be more difficult than the NATO war in Libya given the country’s “far different demographic, ethnic, religious mix.” However, he assured the Senate panel, “Should we be called upon to defend US interests, we will be ready.” The Joint Chiefs chairman added that military operations under consideration included the imposition of a “no-fly zone,” the opening up of a “humanitarian corridor,” a naval blockade of the Syrian coastline and air strikes........
An unnamed senior Defense Department official made it clear to CNN that the administration does not see a UN resolution—which has so far been blocked by Russia and China, which both wield veto power on the Security Council—as indispensable. “Some kind of mandate from a regional organization” would suffice, the official indicated, or any multi-lateral cover for US intervention, such as the “coalition of the willing” the Bush administration cobbled together before the Iraq war.
Particularly important in this regard is Turkey, which is hosting a conference of the “Friends of Syria” this month. While formally opposing a military intervention by any military force “from outside the region,” [which of course does not exclude itself] Turkey has called for Assad’s downfall and demanded that Syria allow the opening up of “humanitarian aid corridors.”
Similarly, the United Nations has prepared a 90-day “emergency contingency plan” to deliver food aid to Syrian civilians. The US State Department seized on the plan, demanding “immediate, safe and unhindered access” to all “affected areas” in Syria.
In response, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said that his government would resist any foreign intervention. “Humanitarian corridors mean military corridors,” he said. “You can’t have humanitarian corridors without military protection.”
During his testimony, Panetta was asked whether the US would provide “communications equipment” to the armed groups seeking to topple the Assad government. Panetta responded that he would “prefer to discuss that in a closed session,” while allowing that the administration is “considering an array of non-lethal assistance.”
In fact, there are multiple reports indicating that the US administration has already gone well beyond that.
In a report on Tuesday, Foreign Policy cited senior administration officials confirming that a meeting of the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council had already adopted a policy “for expanding US engagement with Syrian activists and providing them with the means to organize themselves.”........
However, an email released by WikiLeaks as part of the internal documents obtained from the private US intelligence firm Stratfor indicates that such “lethal assistance” has been in place for months........
The day before Panetta’s and Dempsey’s appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Marine Gen. James Mattis, the head of US Central Command (Centcom) in charge of all US forces in the Middle East, addressed the same panel and gave a candid assessment of US aims in Syria.
“If we were to provide options, whatever they are, to hasten the fall of Assad,” Mattis testified, “it would cause a great deal of concern and discontent in Tehran.”
Declaring Iran “the most significant threat in the region,” Mattis added, “It would be the biggest strategic setback for Iran in 20 years, when Assad falls.”
Behind all of Washington’s posturing about defending civilians in Syria, the real methods and aims of US imperialism begin to emerge clearly. It is waging a terrorist campaign in Syria in preparation for more direct military intervention.
It seeks Assad’s overthrow not out of any interest in human rights or democracy [At least WSWS isn't denying that these are huge problems in Syria], but rather to advance US strategic interests by weakening Iran, Syria’s ally, which Washington views as the principal obstacle to its bid to assert hegemony over the oil-rich regions of the Persian Gulf and Central Asia. Thus, contained within the steadily escalating American intervention in Syria are the preparations for a far wider war, with global consequences.