This post has been updated twice scroll down............YNET
While the US prepares to arm rebels and after its confirmation that the Syrian army has used chemical weapons and crossed the much debated "red line", Time Magazine published a detailed account of how and when the US and Israel plan to destroy President Bashar Assad's chemical weapons stockpile.
The plan to destroy alleged chems is cover for airstrikes on Syria
Hagel, Ya'alon meet in Pentagon (Photo: AP)
According to the report, the two countries have formed a number of contingency plans in case Assad's regime falls or rebels near the weapon caches, mandating a speedy Western response, in an attempt to prevent Syria's weapons of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands. Israeli intelligence officials are quoted as telling Time that one of the possible scenarios for the attacks – which supposedly target some 18 different caches – is a sudden disappearance on Assad's part, either as a result of his death, fleeing to another country or going into hiding
According to Time's report, the Israeli official stressed that it has yet to be decided whether Israel or the US would conduct the attack.
What is clear is that according to the Israeli, the American plans include placing ground forces in Syria and launching a number of attacks, promising such arms are indeed neutralized.
The Israeli is further reported as telling Time that the transfer of American F-16 jets to Jordan as well as the placement of US Patriot missiles – allegedly as part of a military exercise – were intended as a message to Syria.
“It’s a clear, purposeful, presence of a strike force near the border of Syria,” he noted, adding: “I think it’s a message, a clear message,” not only to Syria, but also to Iran, as the force is “only a short leap (from) the Gulf.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday any attempt to enforce such a no-fly zone over Syria using F-16 fighter jets and Patriot missiles from Jordan would violate international law."There have been leaks from Western media regarding the serious consideration to create a no-fly zone over Syria through the deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles and F-16 jets in Jordan," said Lavrov, speaking at a joint news conference with his Italian counterpart. "You don't have to be a great expert to understand that this will violate international law," he added.As part of the more candid cooperation between the Israel and the US, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon met with his American counterpart, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
Update # 1:The link to the TIME article- TIME: The Syrian War: Israel and US coordinate how to target....Update # 2 :ht to Neo from comments in the previous post: The end of Syria as we know it
NeoJune 15, 2013 at 7:05 AM'Pentagon planners and the White House have “budgeted” for more than 50,000 additional lives that will be lost in the coming months, as the price of toppling the Assad government.'
Repeating-
Pentagon and White House have "budgeted" for more than 50,000 additional lives to be lost in the comings months as the price of toppling Assad
Yup, that's right up the human slaughter stats for humanitarian assistance
A part of this “humanitarian assistance” the US is going to established in the coming weeks a “limited, humanitarian no-fly zone, that will begin along several miles of the Jordanian and Turkish borders in certain military areas into Syrian territory, and would be set up and presented as a limited bid to train and equip rebel forces and protect refugees. But in reality, as we saw in Libya a Syrian no fly zone would very likely include all of Syria.
According to the accounts published in American media, Obama could alternatively authorize the arming and training of the Syrian opposition in Jordan without a no-fly zone. That appears unlikely because the Pentagon wants to end the Syrian crisis by summers end