THE ROVING EYE
Qatar's love affair with Syria
By Pepe Escobar

This is the ultimate "Friend of Syria". But what is
Qatar really up to? Word in Doha is that Qatar may
have spent as much as a staggering US$3 billion to
make sure "Assad must go". Yet he hasn't gone
anywhere. Even the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin
Khalifa al-Thani, deposed himself this week, to the benefit of his son, former "heir apparent" Tamim Bin
Hamad al-Thani (see We are all Qataris now, Asia Times Online, June 26, 2013). But Bashar al-Assad
stays put. What gives? Qatar has spent a fortune weaponizing the myriad
Syrian "rebel" factions, buying everything from
stashes in Libya to new stuff in Croatia, flown as
cargo and distributed by Turkish intelligence (there's
an alternative weapons flow by Sunni Lebanese
connected to the Saudis.) The chief weaponizer is a Qatari general. Doha has dispatched Qatari Special Forces on the
ground - just as in Libya - to advise "their" favorite batch of
rebels. Crucially, these Special Forces are
experienced instructors. They are not Qatari; they
are Pakistani - as detailed in this must-read dossier. It goes without saying that these Pakistanis hail
from the same tradition of schooling of the
mujahideen in the 1980s and the Taliban in the
1990s. We all know what came out of it. Asia Times
Online has extensively reported that Syria is the
new Afghanistan - but now with extra bonus jihadi gore, developed in the Iraq war, such as suicide
bombing, beheading and intestine-eating. It's no secret most of the rebels are mercenaries -
usually paid $1,300 a month directly by the Qataris,
with an extra $1,000 if they carry out a special ops.
Quite a few have also developed a secondary career
as YouTube videos uploaders, the weapon of choice
in Arab networks (not to mention Western) to prove how "evil" the Assad regime is. Alongside Washington, Doha also perpetuates the
myth that CIA operatives help to vet these rebels -
with the Supreme Military Council collecting all the
weapons and organizing the distribution. Anyone
who believes this believes Saddam Hussein's
WMDs are on sale on eBay. Moreover, the Syrian embassy in Doha is unique in
the world - as it's entirely populated by "rebels".
Hardcore Qatari lobbying forced the 22-nation Arab
League - which is now, essentially, the Gulf
Cooperation Council League - to hand over Syria's
seat to the rebels. The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) - the latest, messy, rebel political outfit - was
announced in, where else, Doha in November 2012.
Depending on the Arab latitude involved, the Qatari
agenda is depicted as either uniting or dividing the
SNC. The only element that remains stable is Qatar's
foreign policy directive of denying nothing to the
Muslim Brotherhood - as in, for instance, support for
the al-Farouq brigades, who, in theory, control a few
suburbs of Aleppo. Caught in a trap With the ascension of Tamim, the new emir, the key
question is whether this orgy of weaponizing,
truckloads of money, hardcore lobbying and
diplomatic cover has translated, or will translate,
into any tangible benefits for the emirate. The simplistic official storyline spun by Doha is that
the emir and his son advised Assad not to repress
the initial Syrian protests in early 2011. But then,
just like that, he decided to "kill people" - in the
words of former prime minister Hamad bin Jassim,
also known as HBJ, conveniently uttered at a Brookings Institution talkfest. What's not admitted is
that Doha jumped at the opportunity of Syria
becoming the new Libya - when Qatar literally
opened the skies for bombing by the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization. To follow corporate Western and Arab media, one
might be excused to think Tamim is the New
Messiah. He has been incessantly hailed as "The
Arab Spring monarch", so "young" and "modern", a
jogger, an auto and sports enthusiast, and proud
enabler of two "accomplished" wives already.

He's more like the emir of the Muslim Brotherhood
Spring - considering his very close ties with
extremely sectarian superstar al-Jazeera tele-cleric
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has for all practical
purposes called for a jihad against Alawites and
Shi'ites in Syria. The sheikh is one of Tamim's top consultants. It's also no secret that Qatar's foreign policy
essentially takes its orders from Washington. There
are nuances, of course; Qatar may have convinced
the Obama administration to align its foreign policy
with the Muslim Brotherhood, or the Obama
administration may have taken this reckless decision by itself. Tamim may have convinced the
Taliban to open an office in Doha by himself, or he
may have followed a "suggestion" from the Obama
administration. The fact remains that Tamim meets
all the time with State Department and Pentagon
stalwarts. And he is also in charge of those precious weapons contracts with the US and also France. Then there are the fractioned relations with the
House of Saud. Word in Doha is that Tamim was
responsible for initiating the 2010 strategic dialogue
with the Saudis. He is formally the president of the
Qatari-Saudi Higher Council. This means he's
always in touch with Saudi intelligence supremo Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz who, apparently, was
a big fan of the Qatari handover. It's no secret as
well that the true power behind the handover was the
awesome Sheikha Mozah, Tamin's mom. The Muqrin connection does make sense because
the House of Saud absolutely loathed the relatively
flamboyant HBJ - not to mention being extremely
suspicious of the previous emir. The HBJ gang has
been more or less sidelined in Doha. Tamim
appointed Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa bin Nasser al- Thani as the new prime minister. From now on HBJ
will be engaged in life in the fast lane in London
managing the multi-billionaire Qatar Investment
Authority. Not a bad deal. It's unclear whether Qatar's influence in Syria will
continue to be that prominent. Now everyone knows
the CIA is amassing a formidable weapons stockpile
in Jordan to be handed - via its "elaborate" vetting
system - to hundreds of trained-by-USA "good"
Syrian rebels only. Jordan and the Emirates are being propelled to the privileged frontline, with the
Saudis supplying loads of portable anti-aircraft
weapons. Qatar may be left weaponizing just a
handful of inconsequent militias. This remains to be
seen in August, with an already much-advertised
rebel attack on Damascus. The proxy war is bound to become even more
horrific. And there's no guarantee Assad will go. The
"young and modern" emir of the Muslim Brotherhood
Spring may soon reach the conclusion he is caught
in a trap of his, and his father's making.

atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-280613.html

The Media and Syria by PATRICK COCKBURN

Damascus. Every time I come to Syria I am struck by how different the situation is on
the ground from the way it is pictured in the outside world. The foreign
media reporting of the Syrian conflict is surely as inaccurate and
misleading as anything we have seen since the start of the First World
War. I can’t think of any other war or crisis I have covered in which
propagandistic, biased or second-hand sources have been so readily accepted by journalists as providers of objective facts. A result of these distortions is that politicians and casual newspaper or television viewers alike have never had a clear idea over the last two yearsof what is happening inside Syria. Worse, long-term plans are based on
these misconceptions. A report on Syria published last week by the
Brussels-based International Crisis Group says that “once confident of
swift victory, the opposition’s foreign allies shifted to a paradigm dangerously divorced from reality”. Slogans replace policies: the rebels are pictured as white hats and the
government supporters as black hats; given more weapons, the opposition
can supposedly win a decisive victory; put under enough military
pressure, President Bashar al-Assad will agree to negotiations for which a
pre-condition is capitulation by his side in the conflict. One of the many
drawbacks of the demonising rhetoric indulged in by the incoming US National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and William Hague, is that it rules
out serious negotiations and compromise with the powers-that-be in
Damascus. And since Assad controls most of Syria, Rice and Hague have
devised a recipe for endless war while pretending humanitarian concern
for the Syrian people. It is difficult to prove the truth or falsehood of any generalisation about
Syria. But, going by my experience this month travelling in central Syria
between Damascus, Homs and the Mediterranean coast, it is possible to
show how far media reports differ markedly what is really happening.
Only by understanding and dealing with the actual balance of forces on the
ground can any progress be made towards a cessation of violence. On Tuesday I travelled to Tal Kalakh, a town of 55,000 people just north
of the border with Lebanon, which was once an opposition bastion. Three
days previously, government troops had taken over the town and 39 Free
Syrian Army (FSA) leaders had laid down their weapons. Talking to Syrian
army commanders, an FSA defector and local people, it was evident there
was no straight switch from war to peace. It was rather that there had been a series of truces and ceasefires arranged by leading citizens of Tal
Kalakh over the previous year. But at the very time I was in the town, Al Jazeera Arabic was reporting
fighting there between the Syrian army and the opposition. Smoke was
supposedly rising from Tal Kalakh as the rebels fought to defend their
stronghold. Fortunately, this appears to have been fantasy and, during the
several hours I was in the town, there was no shooting, no sign that
fighting had taken place and no smoke. Of course, all sides in a war pretend that no position is lost without a
heroic defence against overwhelming numbers of the enemy. But
obscured in the media’s accounts of what happened in Tal Kalakh was an
important point: the opposition in Syria is fluid in its allegiances. The US,
Britain and the so-called 11-member “Friends of Syria”, who met in Doha
last weekend, are to arm non-Islamic fundamentalist rebels, but there is no great chasm between them and those not linked to al-Qa’ida. One
fighter with the al-Qa’ida-affiliated al-Nusra Front was reported to have
defected to a more moderate group because he could not do without
cigarettes. The fundamentalists pay more and, given the total
impoverishment of so many Syrian families, the rebels will always be able
to win more recruits. “Money counts for more than ideology,” a diplomat in Damascus told me. While I was in Homs I had an example of why the rebel version of events is
so frequently accepted by the foreign media in preference to that of the
Syrian government. It may be biased towards the rebels, but often there is
no government version of events, leaving a vacuum to be filled by the
rebels. For instance, I had asked to go to a military hospital in the al-Waar
district of Homs and was granted permission, but when I got there I was refused entrance. Now, soldiers wounded fighting the rebels are likely to
be eloquent and convincing advocates for the government side (I had
visited a military hospital in Damascus and spoken to injured soldiers
there). But the government’s obsessive secrecy means that the opposition
will always run rings around it when it comes to making a convincing case. Back in the Christian quarter of the Old City of Damascus, where I am
staying, there was an explosion near my hotel on Thursday. I went to the
scene and what occurred next shows that there can be no replacement for
unbiased eyewitness reporting. State television was claiming that it was a
suicide bomb, possibly directed at the Greek Orthodox Church or a Shia
hospital that is even closer. Four people had been killed. I could see a small indentation in the pavement which looked to me very
much like the impact of a mortar bomb. There was little blood in the
immediate vicinity, though there was about 10 yards away. While I was
looking around, a second mortar bomb came down on top of a house,
killing a woman. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, so often used
as a source by foreign journalists, later said that its own investigations
showed the explosion to have been from a bomb left in the street. In fact,
for once, it was possible to know definitively what had happened, because
the Shia hospital has CCTV that showed the mortar bomb in the air just
before it landed – outlined for a split-second against the white shirt of a passer-by who was killed by the blast. What had probably happened was
part of the usual random shelling by mortars from rebels in the nearby
district of Jobar. In the middle of a ferocious civil war it is self-serving credulity on the part
of journalists to assume that either side in the conflict, government or
rebel, is not going to concoct or manipulate facts to serve its own
interests. Yet much foreign media coverage is based on just such an
assumption. The plan of the CIA and the Friends of Syria to somehow seek an end to
the war by increasing the flow of weapons is equally absurd. War will only
produce more war. John Milton’s sonnet, written during the English civil
war in 1648 in praise of the Parliamentary General Sir Thomas Fairfax,
who had just stormed Colchester, shows a much deeper understanding of
what civil wars are really like than anything said by David Cameron or William Hague. He wrote: For what can war but endless war still breed? Till truth and right from violence be freed, And public faith clear’d from the shameful brand Of public fraud. In vain doth valour bleed While avarice and rapine share the land.

PATRICK COCKBURN is the author of “Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq.