By Craig Andresen and Diane Sori / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

Misinformation is a key strategic component of any battle plan. George Washington knew this as being the nature of war in regards to the public and the press.

The war in Syria has for many years been classified by both the mainstream media and by politicians at large as the Syrian Civil War, but nothing could be further from the truth for the fact is that the civil war in Syria is a proxy war being waged by just about everybody except the Syrians themselves.

To fully understand this concept one must first know the players involved in what’s happening inside Syria and why they are so engaged.

And while we hear daily about the “rebels” who are trying to oust duly-electd Bashar al-Assad from power, know that for the most part those “rebels” are not all Syrians per se but are outsiders being driven and financed by entities outside of Syria.

In fact, the “rebels” are proxy fighters being controlled in large part by Iran with a number of said “rebels” actually being ISIS fighters, and with smaller factions bearing allegiance to various independent terrorist organizations. And with the smallest number of “rebels” actually being Syrians engaged in trying to overthrow al-Assad to better their own country, even those actual Syrian “rebels” have been taking up with the Iranian proxy fighters out of both desperation and a lack of resources. They are of little consequence in the grand scheme of things.

Simply, Iran has sent their proxy fighters to Syria for one reason…to take control of a country that borders Israel in their effort to establish a launch point for military action against the regions only true democracy. Iran wants Israel to be wiped from the map, and they need a close-in base for such an undertaking.

And at the same time ISIS fighters in Syria are battling for their own chunk of regional real estate…a home base if you will after losing their grip on Iraq thanks to President Donald J. Trump. Remember, Obama did all he could to establish ISIS in Iraq and ISIS doesn’t want to just wipe Israel off the map…ISIS is seeking the Levant…as in regional control of the Middle East…which puts ISIS in direct conflict with Iran, and rest assured Iran does not want to play second fiddle in the region to anyone.

That means that within Syria both ISIS and Iran are trying to rid al-Assad of power, so as to control a country from which they can attempt to destroy Israel, and yet both Iran and ISIS are also battling each other…“rebels” against “rebels” in their quest for regional superiority.

And other terrorist factions engaged in Syria are apt to be playing a sort of follow the leader, helping whichever of the Iran/ISIS entities they feel has the best chance of coming out on top or whichever of those two entities is currently gaining the most ground…more mercenary than committed.

On the other side of things in Syria, we have the al-Assad regime which quite frankly is using Russia as its proxy to engage both Iran’s proxy fighters, ISIS, and other various terrorist factions for the purpose of maintaining control of Syria.

Russia is playing both ends against the middle by being on friendly terms with Iran and being friendly with al-Assad, but Russia when push comes to shove will most definitely side with al-Assad because Russia’s real estate interests inside of Syria are specific…as in Russia wants Tartus…a deep water port on the Mediterranean and make no mistake both Iran and ISIS want Tarsus as well. But should either Iran or ISIS control Syria neither will allow Russia access to Tartus, but should al-Assad remain in power, he would allow Russia said access.

Therefore, Russia has a vested interest in defeating all the various factions lined up against al-Assad and should Russia…specifically Putin…have access to Tartus he would be more than willing to turn his back on any economic gains he and Russia get from being friendly to Iran. And this brings us to why Tartus is so important to all the key players involved as Tartus is the geographical lynchpin for why all said players are engaged in Syria.

It must be understood as fact that Russia wants the deepwater port at Tartus as its permanent Meditterean base of operations. Leasing access to Tartus in a 1971 multi-billion-dollar debt write-off with Syria, the then Soviet Union was Syria’s main arms supplier and Tartus was used to receive Damascus bought Soviet weapons. Becoming the Soviet 229th Naval and Estuary Vessel Support Division in the mid-1980s, Tartus then became the 720th Logistics Support Point for the Soviet Navy with the Russian Navy continuing to use Tartus after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

And while some Russians officials continue to mimic the 2012 words of Ruslan Aliev, the former head of information at the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) in Moscow that, “Tartus is not a real naval base”…that…“It is just a point on the map to replenish food and water and carry out some occasional repairs..and that from a strategic point of view [Tartus] is insignificant”… nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, a past report on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty stated that, “Russia’s greatest strategic and geopolitical interest in Syria is the use of a deep-water port at Tartus.” How so…when first reported and continuing to this day, Tartus can accommodate both nuclear submarines and missile cruisers at its docks; it remains the receiving port for Russian made weapons shipments to Syria; it is a much needed refueling port and a commercial cargo loading and unloading stop; as well as being directly linked to a well-developed network of roads and railways…railways that just happen to encompass military transport routes from Tartus to major cities across Syria…railway routes Russia needs to transport weapons to al-Assad’s government forces.

And Tartus is a touchpoint beyond just a Russian naval base as it’s also a touchpoint in transporting natural gas to Europe. Lying under the Persian Gulf and being shared by both Iran and Qatar is the largest natural gas field in the world, and with Qatar forging ties with the European Union, Qatar along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey now want to build a pipeline link, but said link would need to pass through Tartus. And being that al-Assad and his ally Russia, as well as “rebels” supporting Iran having interest and competing proposals for said pipeline…again going through Tartus…this translates into he who controls said link controls the descimination of the natural gas. And with a full quarter of Europe’s gas energy needs now being met by Russia imagine the influence and power Russia would have if they controlled the Tartus natural gas pipeline link.

Now as for the actual physical logistics of why Tartus is so important to Russia. As it stands now Russia’s most important foreign naval base is the Black Sea Fleet base of Sevastopol in Ukraine.To deploy beyond the Black Sea and especially into the Mediterranean, Russian warships based at Sevastopol must pass through the Bosporus Strait, but said strait has been militarized by NATO-member Turkey. As per the 1936 Montreux Convention, the Bosporus Strait was deemed an international shipping lane with military restrictions, and a 1982 amendment gave Turkey the right to close the Strait at its “discretion” in peacetime as well as during wartime. Because of this “discretion” the only unfettered way out of the Black Sea for Russia is through the out of the way Dardanelles, thus Tartus becomes a must have vital strategic naval asset.

But no matter the reason, Russia today desperately needs said port if they are to remain a key player in the Middle East, and that, in our opinion, is why neither Russia nor Putin will ever abandon al-Assad or his government. And when you add in that al-Assad struck a deal to confer territorial sovereignty of the base to the Kremlin, it means that as long as Russia continues to veto any and all U.N. Security Council resolutions against al-Assad as well as continues to sell weapons to his regime, their alliance will remain unbroken while at the same time it becomes highly unlikely that any opposition government who might someday replace al-Assad would allow Russia’s current rights to Tartus to remain in place.

But what of Iran whom Russia to some degree continues to play footsie with?

The simple fact is that if Iran were ever to rule Syria even via a puppet government, Iran would then see Tartus as their Mediterranean base of operations and would never allow Russia to keep or even have access to Tartus. And why…in a word ‘payback.’ Remember, while Russia currently backs al-Assad, in October 2017 Russia also made an agreement with Iran’s enemy Israel…an agreement seeing a 10-15 mile “off limits buffer zone” being placed along Israel’s border with Syria…a buffer zone intending to keep both Iranian and Hezbollah forces from entering and attacking the Jewish State. Simply put, the Iranian mullahs have a long memory and they will not forget that while Russia was playing footsie with them at the same time Russia was also making nice, if you will, with Israel and that is something Iran will not forget, forgive or reward.

And this alone means that as much as al-Assad needs Russia to remain in power, Russia in turn needs al-Assad to have access to Tartus.

So as you can see from all stated, U.S. involvement in Syria has a very specific goal…with that goal being preventing Iran, ISIS or Russia from either controlling or having full access to Tarsus, but as with any U.S. military involvement anywhere, a shadow entity is to some extent pulling the strings.

And we’re talking about the gathering and dissemination of intelligence used in guiding both our military and the military forces of our allies in their efforts. Gathering intel is tricky, but not as tricky as disseminating intel and misdirection…the manipulation of gathered intel has always been a key factor not only in military operations, but in the court of public opinion regarding the use of military operations.

The C.I.A. was present in Benghazi, and most likely was a key player in the illegal transfer of weapons from “rebels” in Libya to “rebels” in Syria…actions that eventually resulted in the murders of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans…all of which the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton tried to pin on a YouTube filmmaker’s video.

But, if you think such involvement by the C.I.A. is something relatively new, think again. Look at the involvement of the C.I.A. in such covert actions as

Operation Mongoose https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/01/operation-mongoose/549737/ and

Operation Northwoods http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/northwoods.html…and know that those are just the tip of the covert ops iceberg.

It is well known that we have about 2000 U.S. troops on the ground in Syria, but what isn’t widely known is that the C.I.A. has embedded…as in operatives…in Syria as well. And know that what has transpired in Syria over the past couple of weeks has been known to the C.I.A., and that certain intel we now believe has been manipulated by the C.I.A. in its dissemination not only to our allies but to the American public as well.

The latest volley of American cruise missiles fired into Syria was in response to what has been referred to as an “alleged” gas attack perpetrated by al-Assad…right? Not so fast as our military strike on Friday night, April 13th was actually in response to what sources have told us was evidence and intel manipulated and carefully disseminated by the C.I.A. for specific purposes.

Intel from the ground, most likely gathered by the C.I.A. or C.I.A. informants over the last couple of years, pointed to several buildings in various locations that were at one time key elements of al-Assad’s chemical weapons program. But the C.I.A. knew well that those buildings had not only been evacuated in the days prior to our cruise missile attacks, but in fact had been emptied out long before last Friday’s strikes, which is why casualties were less than a handful and virtually nothing of any importance has been shown to have been destroyed.

That, however, is not where the careful manipulation of intel ends. It is, in fact, where it begins.

The U.S. led military strike against what we have been led to believe were al-Assad’s key chemical weapons facilities was supposedly in response to al-Assad’s gassing of his own people a week prior. Killing a reported 70 or so people…mostly children…a barbaric act if indeed it actually happened, this is what certain elements of our primary overseas intel agencies want us to believe, but we aren’t buying it.

Through our RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS sources and through what we have been able to piece together from other sources, we believe the truth contradicts the manipulated intel. We have good reason to believe Bashar al-Assad did not do what he is accused of doing.

And why do we believe this…first let’s have a look at the two types of chemical weapons most often mentioned in press briefings and widely spread throughout the mainstream media that either sarin gas or chlorine gas was used by al-Assad.

First, sarin gas would have had a greater kill rate than what was reported, and sarin gas also leaves behind a residue making it impossible for unprotected responders to handle sarin victims for some time…and we have all seen the images of unprotected responders trying to assist the Douma victims. Sarin gas also kills its victims at the most in mere minutes, while the Douma victims remained alive, some for more than an hour, after the alleged al-Assad gas attack occurred.

Simply, it was nor sarin gas…which must be vaporized into an aresol form…nor was it chlorine gas that killed those people for something forgotten about chlorine gas is that it blinds its victims both temporarily and in most cases permanently, and we have not heard or seen any reports of the victims in Douma being blinded. Chlorine gas also produces a very recognizable pineapple odor as well as a specific yellowish-brown colored cloud, neither of which have accompanied any of the reports or has been stated by any of the witnesses or surviving victims…so it wasn’t chlorine gas either.

Our RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS sources tell us that the gas in question was most likely CS or CS4 gas…commonly known as CS/tear gas…that killed the people in Douma. And know that CS gas is the same potent tear gas used in riot control situations by law enforcement world wide. And while in most cases CS/tear gas is non-lethal, probably because it is most widely used in outdoor settings, a study of CS/tear gas was conducted by Prof. Dr. Uwe Heinrich and commissioned by John C. Danforth of the United States Office of Special Counsel. Investigating how the F.B.I. used CS/tear gas at the Branch Davidians’ Mount Carmel compound outside Waco, Texas, the study concluded that the lethality of CS/tear gas used would have been determined mainly by two factors: whether gas masks were used and whether the occupants were trapped in a room. Heinrich suggested that if no gas masks were used and the occupants were trapped then, “there is a distinct possibility that this kind of CS exposure can significantly contribute to or even cause lethal effects.”

Large concentrations of CS/tear gas also produce a cloud of white smoke or vapor, which is completely consistent with reports provided by Syrians on the ground and in photos taken immediately after the alleged al-Assad gas attack occurred…but if it wasn’t al-Assad who did it?

Because CS/tear gas is readily available and is easily packaged in small easy to transport canisters, we have every reason to believe the CS/tear gas in question was in the possession of the Jaysh al-Islam “rebels” in Douma. We also have reason to believe that those Jaysh “rebels” knowing a setback was eminent due to the breakdown of negotiations with the al-Assad regime, set in place their own covert op by which their knowing of the sensibilities of the West regarding harm done to children…something the barbaric islamist Jaysh “rebels” have no problem with…they gathered up just enough children from their own area…possibly children of average Douma citizens…enclosed them in unventilated rooms and set off more than enough CS/tear gas canisters to cause the required 20% fatality rate so as to incur the wrath of the West while blaming the alleged attack on al-Assad.

There are several reasons why we believe this to be the absolute most likely scernio.

The militant Jaysh al-Islam“rebels” who were in control of Douma at the time immediately hightailed it out of Douma following the “alleged” al-Assad gas attack. Running to the north of Syria to regroup under the protection of Turkey, the Jaysh “rebels” hoped that by blaming al-Assad they could garner more support for their cause, and the C.I.A. would have been fine with that as they would have also seen a benefit in getting more civilians unaffiliated with terror groups to rise up against al-Assad especially if a “rebel” covert op perpetrated against those civilians was allowed to occur. And if those unaffiliated civilians knew it was the “rebels” who were responsible and thus began to actively oppose such “rebel” factions…the C.I.A. would be okay with that too.

And by carefully manipulating and disseminating the intel not only to our allies but to the American people as well, and by doing so by spoon feeding us said information via the mainstream media, outrage over a harsh military strike against al-Assad would be minimized. So let’s be honest here…it’s so much easier to sway public opinion in favor of U.S. military action when the public is led to believe a brutal dictator gassed his own people…gassed children…than it is to gin up support for military action related to a sea port…Tartus…clear on the other side of the world.

But know that there is also another player in Syria…a player who has very strategic reasons for engaging in limited operations within that country as it is a matter of their national security. And that country is Israel who, over the past two weeks, has made two bombing runs inside Syria. The first occurred on April 8th hitting a target east of the city of Homs with the second strike occurring on April 14th hitting targets just south of Aleppo, and both are important when one considers the misdirection in which covert ops so often engage.

In the April 8th mission Israel overflew Lebanon, which even at the time we questioned, as Israel had no real need to take that air path into Syria, as they share a small common border. So, why did they? The second Israeli strike, the one near Aleppo on April 14th struck an Iranian used military base, destroying it and the ordinance stored there…ordinance used by Iran’s proxy “rebel” fighters.

And while we have no direct confirmation of this, we ask that you consider what we believe to be a very plausible scenario…could Israel have taken the flyover route across Lebanon for nothing more than to be “seen”…to intentionally be observed heading into Syria for that April 8th mission…and could the accusitory Israeli presence over Aleppo on April 14th been nothing more than a misdirection?

Let us explain…in the U.S. led strikes of April 13th we have all been told that 105 cruise missiles were deployed yet, according to RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS sources, official satellite images fail to show either the level of destruction nor anywhere near the number of impact craters produced by said cruise missiles when all three sites our strike reportedly hit are added together. That tells us that between those three targets considerably less than 105 cruise missiles were actually used. By the way, each of those sites could have been successfully taken out with between one to five direct hits alone.

So, what happened to the rest? Could the next day’s Israeli bombing of April 14th near Aleppo been a misdirection…a misdirection set up by the previous week’s much noticed and much talked about Israeli overflight of Lebanon. Could the Israeli war planes been nothing but a mere distraction while American cruise missiles hit the targets…making people believe Israel was dropping bombs, when in fact they were just providing cover. The idea being a coordinated strike to see what cruise missiles could do against a hardened, underground facility such as those Iran is infamously fond of constructing and using.

In other words, could we have been working in concert with Israel in setting the stage for a not so distant future strike directly against Iran? And dare we forget that Benjamin Netanyahu was informed ahead of time about our soon to come bombing of April 13th so there is no reason why we could not have been working in concert on the 14th…if the possibility we laid out is indeed the case. Just something to think about as the lack of impact craters at the three sites we and our allies bombed says it all as witnessed by this Department of Defense photo presented as part of a briefing at the Pentagon last Saturday. This photo clearly shows the preliminary damage assessment from the Him Shinshar Chemical Weapons Storage Site with maybe five impact craters at best.

Over the past five years Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been accused of committing all the chemical attacks in Syria…attacks on both rebel factions and civilians. However, few if any have definitively been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be his handiwork. And something the world also knows but refuses to accept as fact is that the so-called “rebels”…the proxy army of Iran…are also in possession of chemical weapons…of gas. And yet the world blames the easy target for to uncover the truth might indeed cause even more problems than exists today. Better in the world’s eye to remove an easy target than deal with the true enemy…Iran.

Remember, the rules of war are solely written by the winners.

Copyright © 2018 Diane Sori and Craig Andresen / Right Side Patriots / Investigative Reports / All rights reserved.

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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS…LIVE!

Today Friday, April 20th from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori present a Special Report: Syria…A War In The Shadows; and importnt news of the day.

Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history