The friends of "the moderates" are not through yet

1.  Having lost the Battle for Aleppo, the Assad must Go crew have now moved on to projecting memes involving false analogies to The Shoah and NAZI Germany as the aftermath of Jihadi defeat in the city.  Wild and unsubstantiated rumor is being spread by the UN, SOHR (MI-6) and Western media to the effect that Syrian troops are butchering civilians including THE CHILDREN in the streets in a re-enactment of every sack of a city the propagandists can dimly remember.  In fact the Syrians and Russians are evacuating civilians from the recently liberated combat areas, caring for them in makeshift shelters and preparing them for return to their homes.  Does the SAA have a list of hard core jihadis who they are looking for and aiming to eliminate?  SAA intelligence has had agents inside East Aleppo where they made appropriate lists.  These lists would include some fervent civilian collaborators with the jihadi cause.  This is war. Dead men don't bite.

2.  It seems that the former Nusra front and its allies are moving men up to the Aleppo area from Hama in anticipation of a next phase operation into Idlib province probably oriented on Idlib City and Jisr al-Shugur. 

3.  ISW is pushing the propaganda theme that the capture of Palmyra by an "army" of Technicals and suicide bombers is a major setback for the R+6.   It is not.  IMO the  attack was made on an opportunistic basis by IS seeking to take advantage of R+6 focus on the Aleppo battle. 

4.  Palmyra can wait.  The ruins and the propaganda leverage that IS capture of them provide are not worth diverting scarce ground assets from the center of gravity of the fight.  That center of gravity is in Idlib Province and the Turkish border crossing at Bab al-Hawa.  pl

Comments

[Ghostship]

Stephen Cohen v Kenneth Roth on Democracy Now - Umpire - Amy Goodman
Not really the "rumble in the jungle but Cohen gets under Roth's skin towards the end.
https://www.democracynow.org/2016/12/14/slaughter_or_liberation_a_debate_on
It should jump to the start of the intros at about 14:30

[Kooshy]

Babk IMO your "as a matter of fact" ending resault of miss-guided western actions in MENA region is on the spot, no doubt. IMO the western regime change proxy war in Syria was no less than non proxy war in Iraq and much prior to that the war in Lebanon (82), for handing this minorties' hearth and mind and aligning them to Iran. This three wars has multi folded Iran' soft and hard power in her immediate region, Iran was able to show the region' non Sunni minorties, she has the means to protect them from major and minor powers in the region.

[FkDahl]

SOP in my Arctic infantry brigade was that 10 % of AT mines were tamper proof, or connected to a deeply buried second mine 2m back. We had little kits with explosives and a time delayed fuse we placed under the mine. Can only be cleared with explosives.

[kooshy]

FYI
New Syria peace negotiations between Turkey, Russia and Iran to start end of month

"Turkey, Russia, Iran to hold Syria meeting"

"On Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara, Moscow and Tehran are set to hold a meeting over resolving the crisis in Syria on December 27.

"We are striving to secure a ceasefire throughout the country and for negotiations for a political solution to start," said Cavusoglu.

"In this sense, at the end of the month, on December 27 in Moscow, we will hold a tripartite meeting with Turkey, Russia and Iran," he added."
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/12/15/497927/syria-aleppo-un-human-shields

[Chris Chuba]

ISIS has been moving around for 4yrs against some advanced air forces, they have gotten pretty good at it, I do not believe that the U.S. looked the other way at Palmyra. However, here is a recent review of the Pentagon report about Deir Ezzor that did look pretty bad.

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/07/the-mistaken-us-airstrike-on-syrian-troops/

Paraphrasing ...
The Russians were misled about the location of the airstrikes in the deconfliction procedure.

The targeting procedure was changed during the mission.

The primary reason offered for the mistake, the attire worn by the Syrian army, is inconsistent with past observations.

The officer most involved was Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L Harrigan. He was the same officer who protested the most about the ceasefire requirements for sharing intelligence with the Russians.

[Chris Chuba]

The misinformation about atrocities at Aleppo, and I am comfortable about calling it that, is masterful.
Look at how much mileage was gained from the following,
1. Someone calls a representative at the U.N. and 'reports' that 82 civilians were massacred.
2. The U.N. person says he has heard allegations about a massacre.
3. Then CNN, British media, etc, all issue headlines ... 'U.N. reports that 82 civilians were massacred'.
This is pure genius. Sure, if you read the articles carefully, you might be able to extract the truth but to an average person they just here the 1000th report of 'Assad the butcher'.

Today I encountered a Rand Corp. report on 'Russian Propaganda' techniques through an unfortunate Max Boot article http://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html
where one of the main tactics is to bombard the listener with repetitive information from multiple sources. Sound familiar? Talk about projection.

I am not picking on anyone who is worried about civilians at Aleppo. I am just saying that we are being bombarded with a lot of misinformation.
Here is another great link from a Russian officer on misinformation regarding Aleppo, perhaps I'll summarize it in another post. It is very much worth reading https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/staged-videos-showing-russian-bombardments-syria-made-militants-russian-mod/

[Thirdeye]

"Yesterday [December 12] evening, we received further deeply disturbing reports that numerous bodies were lying in the streets but residents were unable to retrieve them due to the intense bombardment, and their fear of being shot on sight. In all, as of yesterday evening, we have received reports of pro-Government forces killing at least 82 civilians (including 11 women and 13 children) in four different neighbourhoods -- Bustan al-Qasr, al-Ferdous, al-Kallaseh, and al-Saleheen."

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21022

On December 12, those were hot neighborhoods in their last hours under Jihadist control. The dead civilians could have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, human shields, or executed for trying to leave, but execution by government troops at that time and those places seems like a logical impossibility.

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria acknowledges reports of Jihadis using civilians as human shields.

http://www.news18.com/news/world/un-body-says-aleppo-rebels-may-be-using-civilians-as-shields-1323162.html

[Ghostship]

They just don't give up. They will do anything to delay yet further the ignominious departure of the terrorists from Aleppo.
"French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday joined calls for international observers to oversee the evacuation of civilians trapped under fire in the wrecked city."
How long will it take to organise and transfer international observers to Aleppo? Weeks? Months? Enough for the terrorists to reorganise in Aleppo?
And Samantha Power was in the lead:
"The French statement echoed a call by the US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, who said on Tuesday that foreign observers should be allowed in to 'oversee the safe evacuation of the people who wish to leave but who justifiably fear that if they try, they will be shot in the street or carted off to one of (Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad's gulags.'"
http://www.thelocal.fr/20161214/eiffel-tower-aleppo-lights-off-paris

[Babak Makkinejad]

Yes, it is a ruse.

Otherwise they could have mentioned the International Committee of the Red Cross.

[Cee]

A Pols,

She's a sickening liar. I honestly don't know how she sleeps at night.

[alba etie]

Col Lang
Then IMO we should have high confidence that Russians will not allow Erdogan any room for further mischief .

[Mac]

Thank you Different Clue - thank you...

[Mac]

Its very discouraging....if they cannot see the "moderates" are the headchoppers, isis - whatever the nom de guerre they presently go by, how easy will it be for the Trump appointees of Flynn, Pompeo and Mattis to curry up a war with Iran and increase the misery a thousand fold?

And I thought 2017 would be a very dark year in HRC was the next POTUS. I may have seriously misjudged Trump.

[Mac]

I'm worried Colonel, very worried...

[Cee]

The Beaver,

They showed Baba and her mother again yesterday. They neglected to cover the news of the 7 year old girl that the Takfiri rats sent into a police station who was detonated.

[Martin Oline]

(Check out this story before posting. Please do note post this if you wish to do a separate thread or believe it may harm some individuals.)

I read this on the southfront site. I will only put in the link as the article has named the individuals.
https://southfront.org/breaking-14-us-led-coalition-military-advisers-captured-by-syrian-special-forces-in-aleppo/

[turcopolier]

Martin Oline

There is one American and one Israeli among the 14. It may be legal to shoot them. pl