Thierry Meyssan is a complicated source to rate. On one hand, he is a very well informed person and he has to be credited with being one of the first people to raise doubts about the 9/11 events. But I also recall Meyssan sometimes mistaking his hopes for facts, and some of his analyses are superficial. Anyway, he is in Syria now (he is very pro-regime), and he recently reported a version of events there which I find interesting and I would like to pass it on to you.
According to Meyssan, the recent Internet and phone shutdown in Syria was part of a government plan to force the insurgents to use their satellite phones, thereby revealing their position. Meyssan claims that this tactic has been very effective and that the government forces were able to kill many insurgents, in particular those affiliated with al-Qaeda. At the same time, Meyssan also reports that the insurgency has increased its pace of operations.
Meyssan claims that all these events reflect the attempts of both parties to the conflict to position themselves in the best possibly situation before negotiations which, according to Meyssan, will happen in February.
Meyssan claims that nothing will happen until the members of the new Obama Administration are fully sworn in. Then, according to Meyssan, real negotiations will happen at the UN with eventually a deployment of UN forces in Syria in the course of March 2013. The most interesting part of his version is that he claims that the bulk of these UN troops will be composed of soldiers from the CSTO.
Knowing the absolute *loathing* that the US and NATO have for the CSTO (with which they even refuse any formal contacts), this is very hard to imagine. A far more likely version, in my opinion, would be the deployment of forces Arab League (as predicted by Russian experts). And yet, Meyssan is basing is version of events on what he believes is an inevitable victory of the government forces which the West will want to avoid.
I am not at all sure that time is in the government’s favor. The only credible reason for that is, according to what I have heard, the fact that most of the population is starting to really fear and hate the crazy Jihadis in the insurgency who are, as usual, leaving a trail of atrocities in their wake.
Whatever may be the case, we might see the outlines of a possible solution: a *mix* of Arab League and CSTO forces?
What is sure is that Russia will never allow another Bosnia or Kosovo to happen. If, and that is a big “if”, a UN peacekeeping operation is approved by the UNSC Russia (and probably China) will definitely make sure that this will not turn into a cover for an invasion of Syria (like what NATO did in Croatia and Bosnia).
This is a very optimistic scenario and I am, by nature and by trade, a rather pessimistic person. Over time, pessimists also tend to be proven right. So I am passing to you this rather optimistic version with some reluctance – caveat emptor.
The Saker
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the recent Internet and phone shutdown in Syria was part of a government plan to force the insurgents to use their satellite phones, thereby revealing their position
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How does that work exactly? Viz., how does the government triangulate via satellite phone?
Peace
@ishamid: How does that work exactly? Viz., how does the government triangulate via satellite phone?
That really depends on the sophistication of the gear the government has.
Basically, a satellite phone is a radio-emitter which sends its signal in a fairly direction beam towards a satellite which than connects it to the world’s telephone network. That signal can be spotted by specialized equipment and then triangulated. Furthermore, intercepted signals can be decrypted and a network “plan” or “structure” can be mapped out and a hierarchical command structure deduced from it. Finally, coordinates can be passed on two artillery/missile units or special operation forces who can than strike at the emitter. As any other signal, satphones can be jammed, although in this case that would defeat the purpose of the entire operation. I don’t know how good Syrian electronic warfare forces are so I cannot say what they could or could not do.
Kind regards,
The Saker
“On one hand, he is a very well informed person and he has to be credited with being one of the first people to raise doubts about the 9/11 events”
Problem is he advanced the “missile hit the Pentagon” theory based on pictures of the Pentagon that were taken out of context.
9/11 is pretty simple to understand:
Bin Ladin and his followers wanted to create an Islamic state anywhere and unify various Islamic groups towards his very small organisation so he started to launch attacks against high profile US targets.
With the heightened tensions sparked by the second intifada in Palestine he and his followers decided to recruit fighters who were being trained to fight in Chechnya to go to the US and pull of 9/11 who were operating through a protected western intelligence Chechen trafficking network.
Then from there it is speculation as to how much Mossad and elements in the US government knew about the attack or helped facilitate it especially in regards to planted evidence like Atta’s passport or the Urban Moving Mossad front company and the 5 Israelis detained heading for the George Washington bridge although there are questions regarding the legitimacy of that claim based on an initial faulty report or were they just monitoring Islamic groups in New York for terrorist financing and recruitment for attacks against Israel.
http://911myths.com/index.php/A_truckload_of_explosives
In the light of the interim events, do you now admit that Meyssen’s analysis was uncannily and absolutely right?
@Saker: I’m sorry, I meant to ask the question in my previous with reference to this part of your text:
‘Meyssan claims that nothing will happen until the members of the new Obama Administration are fully sworn in. Then, according to Meyssan, real negotiations will happen at the UN with eventually a deployment of UN forces in Syria in the course of March 2013. The most interesting part of his version is that he claims that the bulk of these UN troops will be composed of soldiers from the CSTO.
Knowing the absolute *loathing* that the US and NATO have for the CSTO (with which they even refuse any formal contacts), this is very hard to imagine.’
It was when Russia pitched into the Syrian hell with its bombers that I took my first very serious look at Meyssan. Like you, I thought that his claim, some years previously, quite preposterous. I was quite shaken when it proved prescient. (How could he have known this? Does he have an ‘insider’ informer?)
His latest prediction (that the demise of NATO is imminent) is yet to be tested. Surely he would not have made this massive claim groundlessly! Right now (16 August 2016) his page is silent, and has been for several weeks. There was a note on it to the effect that posts will resume on 14 Aug. They have not, and the note gone. I hope all is well with him.
I’ve been following Meyssan cautiously since the early outbreak of regime-change operations in Syria, and found him to be a dependable source of on-the-ground intelligence updates. But I just spotted a gross inaccuracy in his “What the US Protests Reveal” (Voltaire Network, 6/9/2020), where he claims that “the Federal Reserve Bank [was] established by Alexander Hamilton,” and further develops that falsehood into vacuous speculation about Trump’s Jacksonian hot air against the Fed (which he’s turning over to BlackRock). Such utter incompetence, compounded by the lack of a comment section to address the error, has blown away any credibility he had with me and thus I resort to the untarnished pages of The Saker to warn serious readers of such ineptitude or worse.