Foiled US Coup Attempts To Oust Assad

The Wall Street Journal reported years of failed US attempts at instigating a military coup to oust Assad. Secret communications were maintained with Syrian officials.

Washington looked for “cracks” it could exploit with little success. The Journal’s report is “based on interviews with more than two dozen people, including current and former US officials, Arab officials and diplomats,” it said.

Senior officials from both countries spoke directly or through intermediaries – notably “Assad’s main allies Russia and Iran.” Several times he tried unsuccessfully to get Washington to cooperate with Syria in combating terrorism.

The Journal ignored Obama’s full responsibility for launching war in 2011, wrongfully blaming violent outbreaks at the time on “crackdown(s) on protests” – instead of explaining they were instigated from abroad, typical of how America operates.

Its CIA and other elements are experts on stoking violence and instability, shifting blame for their crimes on targeted governments. According to an unnamed former senior Obama official, “(t)he White House’s policy in 2011 was to get to the point of a transition in Syria by finding cracks in the regime and offering incentives for people to abandon Assad,” said the Journal – code language for generous bribes.

Political analyst Boris Dolgov said Obama’s White House made repeated efforts to undermine Assad’s hold on power.

“(W)hen Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem visited Qatar, its authorities offered him millions of dollars to declare that he was switching sides and joining the opposition,” Dolgov explained. (T)here were quite a few coup attempts. (T)hey all failed.”

Dolgov praised Assad and government figures around him. The vast majority of Syrians respect him as their legitimate leader – knowing the alternatives are either predatory Western control or ISIS running things.

“Syria is a sovereign country,” Assad maintains. “Syrians, not Europeans (or Americans), must decide whether there is a bad president or a good president in Syria.”

Several times Assad said he’d willingly step down if most Syrians no longer want him as their leader. Otherwise he’s obligated to stay and serve them. He rightfully blamed Western countries allied with despotic regional ones and Israel for turning Syria into a cauldron of violence, chaos, terrorism and Islamic extremism.

Washington remains adamant. Assad must go remains official US policy. When and how alone are debatable – not replacement by a regime Washington controls.

Endless conflict may continue as long as he remains in power. Russia’s forthright efforts at resolving things diplomatically have no chance to succeed as long as US policy remains hardline.

After earlier failed efforts to find cracks in his government to exploit, Obama publicly called for him to step down in August 2011, the same demand repeated numerous times to no avail.

Former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford calls the government “very supple politically. They’re very smart…always testing for weakness and pushing the envelope.”

They’ve hung in valiantly through nearly five years of US instigated aggression, using ISIS and other takfiri terrorists as imperial foot soldiers – along covert special forces on the ground and bombing Syrian targets since September 2014.

Russia’s anti-terrorism intervention in September 2015  changed the dynamic significantly on the ground, hugely disrupting Washington’s hegemonic aims, giving Assad the upper hand, enabling slow and steady gains against forces used against him for regime change.

With Putin fully committed to combat ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria (and perhaps elsewhere regionally and beyond) for as long as it takes to defeat them, Assad looks stronger now than any previous time since the early months of conflict.”

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected]. His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War”. www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html Visit his blog site at www.sjlendman.blogspot.com.